AUCA students from Afghanistan accepted to International Women's Leadership Program

July 3, 2015

Six AUCA students from Afghanistan were recently accepted for an International Women's Leadership Program known as Women2Women, which will take place in Boston (USA) on July 29 - August 8. This program is the creation of Empower Peace, a nonprofit organization focused on bridging cultural and communication divides between young people in the United States and those living in the Arab and Muslim world.

Details of this conference were sent to Afghan students of AUCA by representatives of the US Embassy in Kabul, along with information that they would be willing to support six female undergraduate students from 15 to 19 years old. Six AUCA students applied for this conference and, recently, were informed that all of them were selected to attend: Mohammad Juma Zahra, Sosan Afghan, Maryam Ehsan Mohammad Azam, Maryam Ehsan Mohammad Azam, Meher Bano Mirzayee, Balqis Asisi Mohammad Sarwar, and Faryal Haidary.

Sosan Afghan, a freshman student of the Journalism and Mass Communications department and one of the participants selected, says:

“I found information about this conference from my scholarship donors - US-Embassy in Kabul - and then AUCA helped our donors to find the six capable female students for this conference.

I have applied for several reasons: first of all, my scholarship donors suggested me to apply for this event. Secondly, because it is a leadership program for women and I want to learn the skills of leadership to help the women in Afghanistan. My goal is to improve and empower Afghan girls and women with equal rights with the men in my society. 

Somehow it was difficult to apply and complete the application, since it required five or six short essays and I had to write it wisely.

I am expecting a lot from this conference: it can build my skills of communication, writing, reading, leadership, and most of all I am looking forward to gain all these experiences of attending a leadership conference for women and to use these all skills in my studies at AUCA and after. 

AUCA facilitated my application for this international event. I really feel myself privileged to be studying in AUCA. Though this conference is given and all expenses are covered by US-Embassy in Kabul, still AUCA staff has helped me and the others a lot during the application process and even in our visa process as well.”

Another participant, Meher Bano Mirzayee, who is a student of the Business Administration department, says:

“Firstly, we faced some difficulties in filling out the application but our coordinator and our donor helped us to complete our applications in the correct way. After that we didn’t face any problems while completing the application.

There are several reasons that I applied to this conference. The first reason for me is that there are many forms of violence against women in Afghanistan such as underage marriage, poor access to education, and women are even stoned to death. There are other problems too, and I want to be the means of bringing changes and in supporting rights for women. I want to stop this violence against women in Afghanistan. I want to be the person to give the hope to Afghan girls and women that they are able to do anything in their life they should not be quite - they should fight for their rights if needed. To be feminist doesn’t matter - I will be feminist if I need.

The expectations of this conference are too much. This conference will give us hope, and the important thing is that it will show us the way to fight for women’s rights. How to find the easy way to achieve our goals? They will probably encourage and help us to increase our intellectual level. AUCA provided this opportunity for me. Otherwise I won’t be able to participate in these kinds of conferences. I am very happy to be a student of AUCA.”

<< go to news list