Afghan women WRITE
06:49, 21 September 2010
.. Posted in Development, Relief and Advocacy Efforts0 trackbacks
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What are Afghan women thinking? What do they say their lives are like?
The Afghan Women's Writing Project showcases essays by Afghan women about their lives, their hopes and their challenges. Recently, the project featured an essay by a friend of mine that I hope you will read and comment on. If you really want to understand the situation in Afghanistan, have a read.
"The Afghan Women’s Writing Project is aimed at allowing Afghan women to have a direct voice in the world, not filtered through male relatives or members of the media... The project reaches out to talented and generous women author/teachers here in the United States and engages them, on a volunteer, rotating basis, to teach Afghan women online from Afghanistan."
Yes that's right: online volunteers.
Reporters in Afghanistan will often claim the lack of women interviewed in their stories is because of cultural issues, and the military will often claim that the lack of women's feedback is also because of cultural issues. The reality is that they just aren't trying hard enough. Interviewing women is possible in Afghanistan: it takes building trust, being discreet, and listening for a longer period of time than you would in the USA to someone you are interviewing.
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