Newsweek Pakistan: When Yasmeen Gul started teaching, she had only one goal in mind: ensure young girls in Pakistan’s northern areas were not denied access to the education that is their fundamental right. Little did she realize that her attempts would put her at odds with the Pakistani Taliban—or that she would one day convince them to let her continue teaching girls in the border town of Jani Khel.
The 38-year-old educator tells Newsweek she realized the dearth of educational facilities in South Waziristan, Tank, and Bannu while working for non-governmental organization Khwendo Kor. “I conducted a survey to determine areas where girls had no access to local schools,” she says. “Once we established the problem areas, I started talking to the people, convincing them one-by-one that their daughters needed to attend school. I reassured them that the Taliban would not harm them or their girls.” After two months of effort, her hard work paid off. With the aid of the NGO, she opened several community-focused schools, enrolling over 200 girls aged between 5 and 8. “One of my best memories is that of a 4-year-old girl running ahead of me to our school in Jani Khel. She told me she wanted to learn and didn’t want to be late to get admission,” she says.
According to Gul, it felt like the culmination of a lifetime of effort. Married at 13 to a teacher at a government school, she had to abandon her studies at a very early age. Unlike many women of the region, however, her husband allowed her to continue her studies in private. With no colleges available for women due to the growing influence of the Taliban, she completed her MBA through a correspondence course. By establishing schools in the region, she hoped no other girl would ever face the same problems.
Categories: Answers to Anti-Islam, Asia, Children, Pakistan