Sueann Musick – The News
NEW GLASGOW – For a brief moment, a simple sticker symbolized how difficult it is for women in other parts of the world to be educated.
As students at New Glasgow Junior High lined up to enter a tent set up in the gymnasium Wednesday, they were given either a red or blue sticker.
Some willingly put out their hands without thought while others were skeptical.
As the line shortened, the students were told to sit closely together on the gym floor under a tent facing towards a young teacher at the front of the room.
Welcome to school in Afghanistan.
For the next 15 minutes, students wearing red stickers were considered girls who would received limited education, if any at all.
Some of the red-stickered girls were removed from the tent and made to stand outside in burkas to represent those women who would never attend the school. Another four girls were taken out of the school and made to go to work while two other girls were married off.
Those remaining looked confused, wondering if they were thankful to be in the school or not considering the conditions.
“This is your whole school underneath this tent,” said the young woman portraying the teacher. “You are exposed to the elements and sometimes it reaches as low as minus 10 Celsius. You have no washroom, but you can go behind that mossy green rock over there.”
The Afghan school dramatization was led by 15-year-old Alaina Podmorow, the founder of Little Women for Little Women in Afghanistan.
“We have been doing a tent school simulation to try and give them an idea of what it is like to learn in that environment,” she said. “There are so many disruptions and issues happening in Afghanistan.”
The participants were told that about 4,000 students attended one high school in Afghanistan and because there isn’t enough room for everyone they go in two- hour shifts.
Most teachers in Afghanistan only have a Grade 8 education and girls can only be taught by male teachers until Grade 5.
If there aren’t any more female teachers after Grade 5 then the girls must quit school.
Podmorow said there is a shortage of female teachers in the school because of low incomes, few opportunities and threats from the Taliban. These same threats are also directed to girls and their families.
“We have been doing presentations for quite a few years now and we know that we won’t touch every single student, but if we are able to touch one student with the fact that there are these issues going on in Afghanistan, we are hoping they will take that away,” she said. “We are hoping they will take that step forward. I was just so moved and I want them to be moved. I understand there are issues in the world and maybe not just with Afghanistan, but with Africa, homelessness and even issues at school. I want people stand up and say it doesn’t take a super hero.”
Podmorow said she became involved in this cause after listening to a speech by human rights activist Sally Armstrong. She was moved by Armstrong’s stories of the hardships of girls in Afghanistan and their struggle to exercise their right for education. She started Little Women in 2007 and it is now recognized in countries across the world.
“We have teams across Canada and the States and in Australia and Europe,” she said. “I believe that if you are passionate about what you do you can fit everything in your life.”
She recently returned from Afghanistan where she visited many of her projects and came away determined more work needs to be done.
“There were some eye-opening experiences, that broke my heart and gave me more power inside and said this has to change. It was an eye-opener for me.”
