Adventures in La-la land

29 May 2010

As the Coalition forces prepare to pull out, other Brits commit to real ‘nation-building’ — educating the next generation. Mary Wakefield reports from rural Afghanistan

The next day, as we bump along to Worsaj, my prejudices collide with K’s. There’s a group of women picnicking by the river, top to toe in blue, and with them a little figure, maybe two feet high, in a pint-sized burka. I feel a great burst of outrage. Are even children forced to cover up? ‘No,’ says K, ‘she’s just playing! My little daughter has one too.’ Well, OK, but how can you say you respect women, and still expect them to wear a sack? ‘The burka is a sign a man wishes to protect his wife,’ says K. ‘What is not respectful is when American soldiers storm into the women’s part of the house. This is forbidden, but they do not care.’

At Sarah’s school in Worsaj, the one so envied by the Qanduz headmaster, we discuss the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), as set by the UN. A sea of white headscarves bob around in excitement. The girls chat away about poverty, health and education. And what about gender equality? Sarah points to the boy/girl symbol on the blackboard, a very important MDG and a magnet for aid money. The class looks blank. One girl says gently, as if to an idiot: ‘Perhaps security is more important.’

That night, in the ladies’ section of our host’s house, Sarah and I bed down in the traditional Afghan fashion, on the floor in a dorm. The mother of the household lies at our heads, burping happily in her sleep; her eldest daughter, a pupil at Sarah’s school, snores by the wall. I think about her classmates, all desperate to learn, though not one has a mother who went to school. Military men are fond of talking about ‘the facts on the ground’. Well, these are the facts on the ground, this mother and daughter. These facts speak for themselves.

www.afghanconnection.org

Previous page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

More articles from: Mary Wakefield | this section

Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comments (1)

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Post comment

Minnie Ovens

May 28th, 2010 12:21pm Report this comment

I hqave not heard of Sara Fane before but I have the utmost respect for her and her motives.
I also find Ms Wakefields article somewhat short but to the point and very accurate.
Thanks to both of you but the key statement is that of K when remarking that it will only take 24 hours for all policing to collapse after a pull out.
Unless the whole country has the will and the leaders then it is all for nought. You might as well have been in Burma!
As John Paul Vann found out in Vietnam, unless you have basic pan country structure you haven't a hope in hell.
But a very thoughtful article.

Post comment