..politic issue..

Hope for girls in Jalalabad

This week Mr Fakhzan and us discussed about politic issue.Our ship and crew then sail to Jalalabad to get more information of discrimination of women there..

In Jalalabad,the literacy rate level is very low.For young women and girls,the discrimination in education are very high. Numerous girls are forced to marry as young as 14-years-old, and many are confronted with early pregnancy, sexual abuse and domestic violence. As opportunities for vocational training and employment are limited, many young people get disillusioned and take up dangerous jobs or drugs.

Because of the tradition,many young women and girls keep facing this political issue yearly. But the young women and girls know how to depend themselves even just several of them realise this political issue.

Afghan youngsters grow up in an especially complex environment, confronted every day with conflicting values. Violence and death have become an integral part of the Afghan society – but there is still hope for possibilities of a better future.


The YICC were inspired by the Afghan non-governmental organization Social Volunteer Foundation which is part of the Child Protection Action Networks (CPAN), set-up by the Government of Afghanistan to protect children in the war-torn communities of Afghanistan. Today, 27 CPAN exist all across Afghanistan, connecting governmental and non-governmental organizations, to protect and promote children’s rights in the country.

When the center opened its doors in 2007, girls were forbidden by their families from attending group discussion sessions. To increase parental confidence in the centres’ reliability, non-government society and its partners recruited female animators and provided car transportation from the girls’ homes to the YICC, circumventing the problem that women usually face when travelling alone.

Today, several hundred girls attend trainings and discussions, but all the challenges have not been overcome.

“My whole family is literate, but my parents engaged me to an illiterate man,” said Nilab. "Every time I want to come here I have to beg like a child for him to accompany me. I am not interested in marriage, but want to publish my book of poems. I need to be in contact with other people but they won’t let me leave the house. Only because my aunt is accompanying me can I be here today.”

Every Tuesday, Nilab and a dozen other girls meet in Jalalabad’s YICC to discuss the problems they are facing and issues concerning them.

The girls have woken up. Discussions like the ones that we now have every week about marriage, relationships, and professional perspectives would not have been possible two years ago.