This wil be the last post from Afghanistan.  Tomorrow we take an early flight to Dubai with a long layover then home to Washington, DC.  The last two days we spent in Mazar e sharif was solely focused on recruiting.  We had hired or extended offers to many of the priority positions – but we had a few more interviews before we could leave. 

There are two young amazing women I must tell you about.

One woman interviewed for the positions of Team Leader for the municipality of Sherbeghan (for security concerns, I won’t use names).  She is a petite young woman who was full of fire.  When her last position was eliminated because the project was completed, she started looking for jobs.  But when nothing turned up right away – she started a fitness center for women in Sherbeghan, a provincial capital in the northern region.  Others asked if she was concerned than she would receive threats and she emphatically said no and that she did not care – it was important to her.  She was smart, full of spirit and had applied to be the team leader so she could be the first woman leader in Sherbeghan.  Although she lacked some technical knowledge critical to the position, we have found she had other great skills that would work well in other positions.  With the right opportunity and mentoring, she will flourish and move up in her career.  I am looking forward to keeping in touch with her and watching her grow.

On our last day in Mazar, we met a woman who had applied to be Urban Planning Director for RAMP UP North.  We were anxious to interview her since she had good, relevant experience and was returning from the U.S. after a 14 month fellowship at M.I.T. to study urban planning.  She was supposed to fly United out of Boston but due to all their issues, her flights were delayed and she did not get back to Mazar until the day before we were supposed to leave.  We spoke with her husband often as he was helpful in keeping us updated about when she was returning.

Although she was completely jet lagged, extremely tired and spoke often in a quiet voice, she was extremely knowledgeable and had great examples and ideas for solving some urban planning challenges in the northern region.  However, she became very animated in response to one of our questions.

In all of our interviews with candidates, we tell them about a RAMP UP North’s priority-to increase the involvement of women in municipal activities and to hire as many women as possible as staff members on the project.  Since the more than 90 percent of our candidates are men, we do ask them if they would have any problems working with or for women.  Many candidates have worked in international organizations and work with women often – so no problem.

I reversed the question for our female candidate for Urban Planning Director and asked if she had worked with men who did not want to work with her because she was a woman and how did she handle that?  That is when her eyes lit up and she said yes, but it is a long story. 

She has a Bachelors in Engineering from a local university and after having worked with the International Red Cross and other organizations, she worked with the International Organization for Migration, where she was hired to help plan and build girls’ schools in the northern region.  This project was supported by USAID.  She told us how they surveyed the available public land in this one district in Mazar province and found a location that would be good for a school.  But when she started discussing this with other local staff, they thought it was not a good idea since a Commander (a type of warlord/fighter) was occupying/using the land illegally.  Everyone was afraid of this commander.  But she did not give up.  She then went to the local elder and asked him for help.  He backed off and said no – but you can go ahead.  She told us then that she did not care if she would be killed – it was more important for this school to be built.

So eventually she was able to set up a meeting with this Commander.  Immediately he said no – females don’t need to be educated.  She spoke about how this school would allow his daughters to go to school.  He said no.  Then he remarked that the Koran said that females should not be educated.  She challenged him and said where did it say that?  He told her that his Mullah told him that.  Then he finally confessed that he could not read.  So she opened up her Koran and translated passages for him where the Prophet Mohammad spoke about the importance of education for males and females and how both should gain knowledge.  The Commander was surprised and a bit angry that his Mullah did not tell him this.  He relented and allowed the school to be built. Amazing. The school is operating to this day.

I was awed by the soft spoken woman who risked her life to further education for girls.  One woman can make a difference and we are making a difference one person at a time here in Afghanistan.  And yes, she was hired as Urban Planning Director.