Little Women

Look at the eyes of these young Afghan women. These are girls grown up too quickly in a war-torn, occupied country that has been ripped to threads over ethnic and religious turmoil. Despite horrific events and insurmountable obstacles, these girls show fierce determination in their eyes as well as intelligence and compassion. They humble me with their courage and perseverance to get an education and make a life for themselves, things that I have been given naturally and without impediment.

The New York Times has a running series called "Saving the World's Women," the features a special article on the schoolgirls who survived acid attacks in Afghanistan. Nicholas Kristof also co-wrote a beautifully-written piece, "The Women's Crusade," that provides a comprehensive view of women in our current world. The most shocking fact is the 130 million have experience genital mutilation or cutting. That fact almost made me vomit. I am at once ashamed of my humanity and inspired to fight against such violence aspects of our race.

Afghanistan has been on my mind a lot this week as the country held its presidential election yesterday, August 21st. A new president (aka not Karzai) is needed to do a manual overhaul and reorganization of the countries processes. Part of the reason why there is so much violence against women in Afghanistan is due to the government corruption, drug trafficking, and power given to the Taliban (all intimately connected). This needs to be changed under a new ruler. The results have not been released yet, but my heart is hopeful that perhaps Dr. Asraf Ghani might be able to triumph over Karzai so that women can receive more help and support from their own government.

Image found here.