A Woman’s Homeland is Where She Prospers

Advisor to international organizations, social activist, and AUAF undergraduate student Wazhma Frogh can be compared to the future of her country: bright, energetic, and successful.

Like many of her countrywomen and men, her past is rooted in violence, repression, and forced migration. But Wazhma has come a long way from where she started. Today she is one of the rising stars of the advocacy community in Afghanistan. Despite – or likely because of – her humble beginnings, she is a passionate and committed activist poised on the cutting edge of substantive social change in Afghanistan.

Wazhma was recently appointed as Country Director for Global Rights’ Afghanistan office. The appointment comes on the heels of other successes: earlier this year Wazhma returned to Afghanistan from a high-level program, the Ninth Annual Colloquium and Policy Forum of the Initiative for Inclusive Security at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. As part of the program, which saw women from conflict countries share diverse experiences in advocacy and policy development, participants were sent to Washington D.C. to meet with leaders including, she says jokingly, "First Lady Laura Bush and her husband."

Why don’t women eat meat?

"Growing up in Kabul, I lived in a big house with my grandparents, six uncles and their families, and three aunts, all of whom enforced very rigid rules," she remembers of her early childhood. "Girls were not allowed to eat meat, because it makes them strong and more likely to argue."

"I was always the one questioning: ‘Why don’t women eat meat? Why don’t I hear women talking and arguing in the house?’"

After Wazhma’s arrival as a refugee in Peshawar, Pakistan, the high cost of school borne by her struggling family prompted her to seek ways to contribute to the family’s income. She taught herself English by diligently studying English television shows, and then offered her services as a tutor to other families. At the age of 12, she was tutoring between six and eight other children.

"With the money I made through tutoring, I funded my sisters to go to school."

The experience also changed her father, who saw that even at a young age, women are capable of contributing to the household finances.

The Road to Kabul

Just out of high school, when many of her counterparts in Western countries are choosing universities or colleges, Wazhma frequently found herself trekking back into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, covered by a chador (burqa) and accompanied by her courageous father, by now a close friend and strong supporter, to support women’s projects, before escaping back to the relative freedom of Pakistan.

In 2001, just prior to the fall of the Taliban, Wazhma returned to Kabul for good. "I often say that Kabul at that time was prehistoric," she remembers. "Today, the signs of progress are less in the new buildings, but in the changes for women. They are able to go to school…at least in Kabul," she adds quickly. "And there are women working in the private sector. This is very new in Afghanistan."

Wazhma has built up a formidable portfolio as an expert on gender and youth issues, working for organizations such as the World Food Program, the United Nations Development Program, and the Canadian International Development Agency.

On her free time, she is a leading social activist at the national and international levels.

"Wazhma feels the plight of women in this country," says AUAF Professor Judith Schiffbauer. "And what that does to society, especially for women but also for men, who often shoulder responsibilities that are shared in many other countries."

Wazhma’s efforts are not in vain. "Last year, the Afghan Parliament was deciding on the age of criminal culpability – the age at which a child can be tried and punished as an adult," she says of one campaign. "They proposed nine years old for a boy and seven years old for a girl."

"Using Islamic justifications we were able to change it to 17 years old for girls and 18 years old for boys." She pauses. "It’s not perfect. But it’s progress."

Education for the future

Wazhma studied for two years in Islamabad before leaving for Afghanistan, where she enrolled as part of AUAF’s first class in March 2006.

"I had been to a lot of countries where I saw the American school system," she says "I was really inspired."

"I was told to apply for scholarships in the United States, but I want to stay in Afghanistan."

The flight of bright young people from conflict countries is an impediment to its growth and development. Through AUAF, deserving students are able to get an internationally-supported education while contributing to the stability of their country.

"AUAF is different because students have a say in their education. This is new"

"Wazhma is an outstanding scholar," says Dr. Joyce Killen Shah, Associate Professor at AUAF. "She speaks up and is very good at holding her own."

Eventually, Wazhma will study for a masters degree in Anthropology, focusing on Islam. "We need an anthropological perspective in Afghanistan," she says. "What some people call insurgency is rooted in tribalism. We should understand all perspectives, including how to work with tribal traditions, customary law, before the conflict will end."

For the future of Afghanistan, she would like to see 100% of Afghan women literate. "Nothing is more important for the women of Afghanistan than education."

For AUAF, "Fifty percent of students here should be women," she asserts when asked how to improve AUAF. "And they should come not just from Kabul, but from all the provinces."