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News and EventsKeeping Current
Boston Globe: Bringing Light to Afghan Girls Mention Razia Jan’s name in Duxbury and you’ll be greeted with smiles. For years, Jan owned a dry cleaning and seamstress shop in town, where she could turn out the most intricate designs. In the days following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, she made fleece blankets with the American flag pattern. She then organized town residents and school children to buy and cut fabric for hundreds of blankets, which she sewed and distributed to fire houses and other first responders at the World Trade Center in New York. She also made two enormous quilts, each bearing an imprinted photo and short biography for every person killed in the attacks on the Pentagon: 125 in the building, 59 on American Airlines Flight 77. She presented the quilts at the rebuilt Pentagon chapel. Read the full article here.
New England Cable News (NECN): 9/11 Widow Helps Afghan Widows Patti Quigley, Executive Director of Razia's Ray of Hope, speaks to NECN on the 10th anniversary of September 11. Watch the video here. Oxfam: High Stakes: Girls' Education in Afghanistan (Joint Briefing Paper) "Millions of girls have entered school in Afghanistan, since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. It is one of the few good news stories of the last nine years. However, the deteriorating security situation and the international community’s focus on stabilization and counter-insurgency rather than on long-term development means this good news story is in danger of turning bad. A new approach from both the Afghan government and donors is urgently required to hold onto the gains that have been made." Paper published on February 24, 2011. Access the full paper here.
In high heels and head scarves, a small band of Afghan women took to the streets of the country's capital, Kabul, on Thursday to protest harassment by men in public places. Carrying signs, that read "This street also belongs to me" and "We won't stand insults anymore" the 20 or so women
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and some men marching in solidarity
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protested being abused, groped and followed on the city's streets. Read the full article here. Matching Grant Award Funds Purchase of Computers for Zabuli Education Center Razia’s Ray of Hope has been awarded a matching grant from the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International and other Rotary Clubs, including the Rotary Club of Duxbury. This funding will enable the purchase of computers for the Zabuli Education Center, which will have a huge impact on the school’s resources and outcomes. Wicked Local Duxbury: Razia Jan receives inaugural award for her efforts through Razia's Ray of Hope Foundation When Razia Jan returns to town, she returns to a community she describes as the backbone of her efforts to build the Zabuli Education Center for Women and Girls, the mission of which is to educate young women in her home country of Afghanistan. It’s a return that becomes very emotional and brings tears of joy to her eyes. At the Duxbury Senior Center Sunday, during a reception sponsored by the Duxbury Rotary Club, she looks back on the evolution of her efforts to help the people of Afghanistan. “It’s a journey, and we are in the middle,” she said. “I am so proud the last three years to have the school going.” Read the full article here. Concord Patch: Afghan School for Girls Gets Huge Boost The Zabuli Education Center for Women and Girls got a tremendous shot in the arm after Saturday night's Concord fundraiser. School founder Razia Jan spoke passionately about the school that is educating girls from kindergarten through grade seven at the home of Kristen and Jim Canty. Approximately $60,000 was donated to Razia's Ray of Hope Foundation that oversees the school. Read the full article here. The Guardian: Taliban ready to lift ban on girls' schools, says minister The Taliban's leadership is prepared to drop its ban on girls' schools, one of Afghanistan's most influential cabinet ministers has claimed. According to Farooq Wardak, the country's education minister, the movement has decided to scrap the ban on female education that helped earn the movement worldwide infamy in the 1990s. Wardak said the Taliban's leadership had undergone a profound change since losing power after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. "It is attitudinal change, it is behavioural change, it is cultural change," he told the Times Educational Supplement. "What I am hearing at the very upper policy level of the Taliban is that they are no more opposing education and also girls' education." Read the full article here. Duxbury Clipper: Girl Power, Afghan Style “The main function room at the Senior Center was lined with photographs from the Zabuli School for Girls as Razia Jan returned to Duxbury to update residents and donors on the school’s progress. The smiling faces of the young women were reminders of the good Duxbury natives have done for students halfway around the world." Read the full article here.
“More than 6,700 miles from Ground Zero, a group of more than 200 school girls can trace the promise of their educations directly back to the events of 9/11, a Duxbury businesswoman, and a Wellesley resident. 'I wanted to make some sense of all the madness that is happening,' said Afghanistan-born Razia Jan. In 2008, with the help of Wellesley resident Patti Quigley and others, she founded an all girls’ school in Deh Sabz, a city near Kabul." Read the full article here. Digital Video and Imagery Distribution System (DVIDS), US Military: Arzu Studio Hope Seek to Improve Quality of Life for Afghan Women Razia Jan, who also serves as Program Director in Afghanistan for Arzu Studio Hope, visited Helmand province June 8-12, 2010, to survey search for "potential locations to expand operations like the women's center in Bamyan, Afghanistan. The women's center employs women weavers to create high-end woven rugs. To work for Arzu, women sign a contract agreeing to send all of their children to school until age 15 and take literacy classes themselves. Also, pregnant women and mothers of newborns are to accept transportation to medical care." The full article is available here. You can also see photos at DVIDS. McClatchy Newspapers: Despite reports of progress, reality for Afghan women is grim “Women not only continue to lack access to healthcare and education, but they also lack legal protections. They continue to confront pervasive violence and early marriages. After nine years and $300 billion, U.S. reconstruction efforts have largely bypassed women and girls." Read the full article here. UNICEF: Regional Director highlights challenges for girls in visit to Afghanistan “UNICEF is working to increase the numbers of girls in school by supporting the training of female teachers and setting up child-friendly classrooms. [UNICEF Regional Director]
Toole visited female students at Herat Girls High School to see such efforts firsthand." Read the full article here. Duxbury Clipper: Girls' School in Afghanistan Still Flourishing "You might think your commute is tough, but Razia Jan’s is much worse. She wears two hats, as the head of the Zabuli School for Girls in Deh Subz, Afghanistan and as the program director for the Arzu Foundation, a non-profit that works with women rug weavers known as the Hazara. It can sometimes take her 14 hours to get from one place to the other, across dangerous mountain roads in a fragile part of the world." Read the full article here. US Department of State: Afghan Women and Girls: Building the Future of Afghanistan Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues: "I am honored to appear before you today to describe why women and girls are among the most powerful — but still largely underutilized — agents for change to advance security, stability, and development in Afghanistan." Read the full written testimony here. USA Today: #1 Killer in Afghanistan is Poverty Khaled Hosseini: "When people have a roof over their head, food on the table and a school to send their children to, they are not as vulnerable to exploitation by extremist groups. Young Afghans deserve a better option than becoming fighters, and it would serve us well to give it to them." Read the full op-ed piece here.
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Wellesley Townsman: 
