TALK
What: Courage to Learn: Education for Afghan women and girls
When: 7 p.m. Monday
Where: St. Aidan's United Church, 3703 St. Aidan's St. (Richmond at Cedar Hill Cross Road)
Admission: By donation
When Lauryn Oates was in Grade 9, her mother tore an article about the plight of Afghan women out of the newspaper and left it for her daughter to read.
"She threw it on my bed and it threw my life upside-down," said Oates. "I read it and got really angry. It didn't seem anyone was doing anything about it, so I wrote a petition asking the government to take action. I collected hundreds of signatures and sent copies to Ottawa -- and the Taliban."
She never received an answer, but an activist was born. Thirteen years later, Oates is projects director of Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan and the Globe and Mail has named her as the first of 10 Canadians to watch in 2009.
The Royal Roads graduate, now taking her doctorate at the University of B.C. and still deeply committed to peace and literacy-building in the Middle East and Central Asia, is part of a panel discussion here Monday. It features Jamila Akbarzai, who earned a BSc from Kabul University before escaping to work for the International Rescue Committee in Pakistan. She also founded the Afghan Women's Welfare Department and was selected in 2002 to participate in the grand assembly to elect the new government.
Another panellist is Marjan Nazer, a 22-year-old UBC student born in Afghanistan who fled with her family to Pakistan and Canada. She volunteered at a Kabul orphanage this summer. Also speaking is Afghanistan-born Qudsia Karimi, who escaped with her parents after the Soviet invasion.
Oates hopes to be joined by global rights author and lawyer Mohammad Ishaq Faizi, a graduate of Kabul University and specialist in prosecution and the judiciary. He is trying to get a flight out.
Oates has been to Afghanistan 15 times since 2003, and is hopeful about change, but "disappointed by this country's reluctance to engage. Many are uncomfortable about NATO being in Afghanistan. They think it's negative, a waste of dollars.
"There is a misconception that all Afghans are violent misogynists, but that's not so. The overwhelming majority welcome the international security forces, want democratic elections, support women's rights.
"But there are many challenges after 30 years of conflict ... To stop a war, you must pour money into education."
Jill Leslie, a member of the local chapter of Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan said $2 million has been raised by the national group, which formed in 1996. "It all goes to grassroots projects, like teacher training or libraries."
