10 March 2008
Afghan Women Find Shelter in Service Organization
Nongovernmental organization for women persists despite Taliban threats
Washington -- It takes courage to found a women’s nongovernmental organization under the rule of the Taliban, and Suraya Pakzad has that courage in abundance.
In 1988, this Afghani mother of six founded Voice of Women, one of only a few women’s nongovernmental organizations in Afghanistan and now the only NGO that works in the western city of Herat, the third-largest city in the country.
Voice of Women started its work in secrecy. In a 2005 interview with “Women’s E-News,” Pakzad said the women met at her house and those of other women to teach girls and young women how to read.
"The women would gather together and we would use donated books to teach them. Each reading area had an oven though, and if we were discovered, we had to burn all the books,” she said. When the Taliban lost its political power, Voice of Women worked openly.
One of the organization’s core services is to provide shelter and counseling to women who recently have been released from jail and women who have run away from abusive relationships. These include young girls forced into marriages that often amount to nothing more than indentured servitude under brutal conditions.
In addition to providing shelter to needy women and girls, the Voice of Women promotes the role of women in government and offers poverty-reduction programs.
Pakzad, who is fluent in English, Dari and Pashto, has spoken at workshops around the country.
She joined seven other women from around the world at the U.S. Department of State to receive the International Women of Courage Award March 10.
In its second year, the award is the result of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s desire to recognize women around the globe who have shown exceptional courage and leadership in promoting women’s rights and advancement.
The other awardees, from Fiji, Kosovo, the Palestinian Authority, Pakistan, Paraguay, Iraq and Somalia, were selected from 93 nominees submitted by U.S. embassies worldwide.
