Through distance learning with U.S. volunteers, Afghan women are learning writing skills and filling a blog with their thoughts about love, politics and family, according to an article in Womens eNews:
In more than 100 entries about love, politics and a variety of other topics, Roya, Seeta and a small group of other Afghan women are able to express themselves freely, something women like them cannot always do.
They are students of the Afghan Women’s Writing Project, which offers three dozen women in Afghanistan the opportunity to study various forms of writing through online communication with volunteer teachers in the United States.
Students’ work is published on a blog, allowing people from around the world to read their writing and leave comments.
The project is up against some serious obstacles, including difficulty in accessing Internet in rural areas. The Afghan Women’s Writing Project hopes to one day establish Afghanistan’s first all-women Internet cafe so the women can have access without garnering unwanted attention. The project also began providing jump drives–small devices that allow computer users to transfer documents among computers–and laptops so that students can write at home and have male relatives take the jump drives to Internet cafes to e-mail their work. We, at Women Deliver, know how important it is for women’s voices to be heard. Read the blog to see what the beautiful writing of these women.
Flickr photo by Michael Foley Photography.
Entry Comments
This is incredibly touching.
Looking at the poor treatment of women in some middle eastern countries like Afghanistan, I am glad that some of them are given a chance to express their thoughts freely. This is seen as a very small step towards them gaining some rights, but it is definitely a step in the right direction.