Rawadari in partnership with Musawer, launched a campaign dedicated to girls education last week. The campaign IQRA, aims to mobilize more voices in support of the Afghan women and girls right to education. IQRA/iqra is an Arabic word meaning Read and is a reference to one of the Surahs in the Quran, carrying religious significance and as a reminder regarding the importance of education for women and men in Islam. The campaign’s objective is to revive momentum and pressure of reopening of school girls and to provide a platform for girls to share their stories and voice their demands. Since IQRA’s launch on June 14 to mark the devastating 1000 days of secondary school closure for girls, IQRA has received significant Afghan media attention and public engagement. The campaign has been featured by the media in exile, as well as BBC Afghanistan Dari and Pashto, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and other platforms with wide audiences inside Afghanistan. We have received 1000s of messages of support from parents, teachers and school girls. Prominent Afghan singers and poets, both men and women, have supported and joined the campaign. It is a promising start that we aim to build on in the months to come to expand and amplify support for girls and women’s education in Afghanistan.
The central element of the campaign is the stories and voices of girls from all 34 provinces of Afghanistan. The names of the girls and women have been changed and their voices modified to protect their identity and safety. Throughout the Campaign, Rawadari and Musawer will continue consultations with other groups, organizations and coalitions engaged on girls’ education in Afghanistan to broaden our reach and build wider alliances. The campaign also calls on citizens to participate in safe ways, through social media, discrete sharing of their testimonies with Rawadai and Musawer, talking about girls’ education in the mosque, in weddings and gatherings and within the communities. The campaign will continue to engage with influential Afghan athletes, musicians and artists to encourage their public support of this important cause. Through IQRA and with our other peers in the Afghan civic community, we hope to increase momentum and public pressure for reopening of school girls.
