Afghan girls disguised to attend school

POLITICS - Zahira Sarwar is an Afghan-Canadian working at GTZ in Afghanistan. While there she recently conducted an interview with a girl who disguised herself as a boy and went to school in a village where the Taliban was in control. The video below has English subtitles.

Zahira Sarwar says "there is a common misconception that with the arrival of Foreign troops in Afghanistan and the introduction of democracy women's rights have improved. But as you will see in this video the Afghan government and foreign troops are only focussing on certain provinces and cities thereby leaving other regions of the country still in the hands of the Taliban. Consequently, women and young girls' lives are still affected by this."



The areas the military are interested in are the Al-Qaeda strongholds along the border of Pakistan and protecting the Trans-Arabia Oil Pipeline which goes through the Wakhjir Pass and the part of Afghanistan known as Wakhan Corridor which goes to the Chinese border. The oil pipeline to China is an important part of the USA's economic strategy for the region.