Afghan Women Pride

Posted on Mar 14, 2011 in Afghanistan, Hamed Wardak

Afghan women can take pride in their heritage.  In March, Exec-Dir. of the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) Dr. Sakena Yacoobi was awarded the inaugural Enterprising Women’s 2011 Global Women’s Hall of Fame award in Florida.  Yacoobi received the award from the founder of the Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women (Dr. Terry Neese) at the 9th Annual Enterprising Women of the Year Awards Celebration.
According to Dr. Neese, this nomination was intentional, vis-à-vis empowering Afghan women:  “I nominated Dr. Yacoobi for this award due to her long time efforts to empower women and communities to bring education and health services to poor rural and urban girls and women, as well as other disenfranchised Afghans.”  Apparently it was Yacoobi’s organization which was the instigator of presenting human rights and leadership training to Afghan women, as far back as the 1990s.  The lady is thus “an inspiration to Afghan and American women.”  Yacoobi herself was said to have felt most “honored.”  It is also a mark of honor “for the women of Afghanistan who are creating new lives for themselves through their pursuit of education, their creativity, and their drive to succeed under the most difficult of circumstances.”
Any improvements such as these that are directed toward the people of Afghanistan, giving them a sense of pride in who they are and their achievements is good news for the whole region as well as those like Hamed Wardak – the founder of  Campaign for a US-Afghanistan Partnership – which seeks to improve relations between the two countries.