Afghan girls deserve the chance to create and pursue their own dreams.
Why we care: Afghan girls living in New York often suffer the same fate as girls in Afghanistan: barred access to education and forced marriages at a young age.
How we’re solving this: Our Girls Leadership Program teaches leadership skills, connects girls with Afghan female leaders and role models, and encourages them to create and follow their dreams.
Women for Afghan Women (WAW) was founded in 2001 to advocate for Afghan women and girls both in Afghanistan and New York. WAW soon realized that despite being raised here, the daughters of this community are at risk of facing fates identical to their mothers. Many girls in the local Afghan community live within the same cultural confines as their mothers and are in danger of being pulled out of school, forced to marry someone they barely know, and prevented from preparing for college and/or a career. We know dozens of girls who have been pressured or forced to accept such a fate.
In 2005, we launched the Girls’ Leadership Program (GLP) which works directly with girls aged 10-14 to teach them about leadership skills and human rights, and educate them about the multitude of educational and career opportunities available to them, enabling them to advocate for life paths different than their mothers were forced to take.
Girls who attend our program learn about prominent Afghan and Muslim female leaders, explore Afghan and Muslim culture and history, participate in art projects that promote self-expression, discuss topics such as healthy relationships and self-esteem, and are encouraged to begin dreaming about the futures they envision for themselves.
From the very start, this program has been successful. Of our very first group of GLP members, not one girl was pulled out of school or forced to marry, despite the fact that each girl was at risk.
These girls become the foundation for social change within their own communities. Many return to help develop the curricula and be role models for the next GLP group.
When Aisha first joined this group, she was a teenager about to be pulled out of school and married to a stranger. At a recent event, Aisha stood up in front of a crowd of people, mostly Afghan families, and shared: “Women for Afghan Women inspired and taught me to be a leader. The life that I have today is because of this organization.” She is currently completing her last year at Queens College and looks forward to a future of her own choosing.
Women for Afghan Women is a member of Girls Not Brides a global partnership of more than 250 non-governmental organizations committed to end child marriage.
www.girlsnotbrides.org @GirlsNotBrides