International Political Will

If ever there was a symbol of the conflict between female education and tradition in Central and South Asia, this was it.
One of my students from the slums of Mumbai (where full black burqas are not uncommon), 15-year-old “Sally” takes the train to school everyday. Her parents had no idea that she was secretly meeting [...]

A story about a women’s shelter in Afghanistan should be an opportunity to showcase what can really drive progress.  It could be a chance to commend those handling the day-to-day operations.  It might be an opening to demonstrate what role Islam plays in women’s lives who, although they have been victims of a brutal misogynist [...]

Disconnects between reality and our imagination abound everywhere. Often what we see, hope for, or work towards is skewed by our own stereotypes, idealism, or worldview. From the West, it is easy to bloviate about secular democracy, strong central government, and a separation of religion and state in a post-war nation like Afghanistan. [...]

Afghanistan is a country beset by war.

A generation of people have known nothing other than death, destruction, and poverty. The Soviet invasion of 1979 initiated a three-decade long assault on ordinary Afghans, resulting in one of the lowest life-expectancies in the world at just 45 years.
I visited northern Afghanistan in December 2007 in search [...]