Sylvia's Journal

Today, our local newspaper told us,that the number of women drivers in Herat has increased by 60%. Of course it probably started from very little, but still. The title of the article was Afghan Road Rage but it was about men’s reactions to women driving. The woman who was featured in the article had a dented Suzuki, the dents coming from young men who didn’t think women should be driving, and a scarf tightly wrapped around her head.

The article ended with a quote from a young male student, “I see women as human beings deserving of all human rights.” Now there is enlightenment! Other people interviewed for the article didn’t think women should ever be behind the wheel. Their mullahs told them so, and that, here, is truth!

I attended the opening of a conference about the pressing problem of not having enough or good people to manage the pharmacies in private and public health facilities. The entire event was in Dari and so I treated it as a Dari class. With my dictionary I tried to translate the words on the banner and discovered the Dari translation was quite different from the English text.

Then, when the slides came on I tried to look up the words but by the time I had found the meaning the next slide was on. Still, I learned one new word per slide, words like assessment, framework, goals, graduates, etc.

A distinguished gentleman sat next to me who turned out to be a professor at the university. He was trained in France in the 60s and so we spoke French, a language that I rarely speak anymore as it is associated with a generation that has mostly disappeared through death and emigration.