everyday ways a young woman can live her life, she threw herself into women’s projects and worked for organizations that promoted change. “In my country as a woman, every day when you wake up, every minute, every second, is a struggle to overcome a thousand different obstacles. So many remnants of the old Afghanistan have to change.” Always seeking to increase her effectiveness as a change agent, Simin began researching master's programs that would equip her with practical tools and skills for the two foci of her work – increasing the role of women in Afghan civil society and addressing the deep psychological wounds that three decades of warfare have inflicted on everyone. projects,” grassroots initiatives to address That search opened a conversation the massive damage done to the nation’s with her cousin, Farishta Sakhi, a 2010 collective psyche. graduate of EMU’s Center for Justice Her classes in EMU’s master's proand Peacebuilding. “She told me EMU’s gram have given Simin the confidence program was well-respected around the to share her ideas on a larger stage. “In world for its practical training programs.” a policy class, we discussed the role of With the help of several scholarships, Siadvocacy groups, effective ways to push min was able to begin her master's studfor change, and professional ways to ies in 2012. “I love the educational model influence policy makers.” of the classes; they’re practice-based, not Those skills, plus her compelling life just academic theory.” story, were spotlighted on Nov. 15, 2013, Of particular interest to Simin was when Simin was invited to participate in trauma training offered through STAR a panel discussion in Washington D.C. (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and She seized the opportunity to influResilience). “This was something I really ence policy, gathered the concerns and needed as a person who has experienced priorities of her Afghan associates, and trauma. The class also gave me the tools prepared a one-page position paper advoto go back to Afghanistan and work cating a greater role for Afghan women with communities who have experienced in civil society. Her paper ended up in trauma. Just having a safe space to talk the hands of former first lady Laura Bush about the wounds of war would be a giprior to the one-day event, “Advancing ant step forward for my country.” Afghan Women: Promoting Peace and In a 2013 class paper, Simin identified Progress in Afghanistan.” a piece missing from high-level discusOn her big day in November, Sisions and decisions about Afghanistan’s min attended the morning session at future – the foundational work of Georgetown University where the former healing the psychological wounds that and current secretaries of state, Hillary three decades of war have inflicted on all Clinton and John Kerry, were featured levels of Afghan society. “We don’t talk speakers. about it. There’s a stigma associated with The afternoon venue moved to the naming and working to overcome the World Affairs Council where Laura Bush debilitating effects of trauma.” spoke, followed by a panel discussion. “How can those who have never known “I was surprised and somewhat intimipeace create it?” – that’s how she posed dated when I learned that I was the only the dilemma in her paper. She proposed Afghan woman on the panel,” Simin a significant investment in “psychosocial recalled. “I had assumed there would be
She wants Afghanistan's decision-makers to address the psychological wounds sustained from three decades of war.
12 | crossroads | fall/winter 2013-14
others. The audience asked many questions about my country, and specifically about the role of women. Some questions were beyond my expertise to answer, and I just had to decline to answer.” She considered the experience good training for the main event – her spring semester practicum as an intern in the congressional office of Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.). Simin feels a keen urgency to preserve the advances Afghan women have made in recent years. The Afghan national elections of 2014 hold both promise and peril – promise, that women will participate fully in the electoral process as voters and candidates; peril, that forces of traditional tribalism will once again trample on the rights and safety of Afghan women. The work of her practicum will be lobbying U.S. lawmakers to endorse an open letter supporting the gains of the last 10 years. Knowing they are not alone, that they have American and international support, will give Afghan women the courage to fully participate in this year’s election and build upon their hardwon gains. “In many ways we are haunted by the memory of past government changes where the first official action, even before addressing the urgent issues of governing, would be to clamp down on the behavior of women, restricting them to their homes, removing them from the public sphere,” said Simin. “This election year we can’t let that memory paralyze us.” She recalled longingly the stories of her father’s younger years, during the more relaxed and open times of the 1960s to mid-70s. At the universities, women had full access to an education and advanced to professional positions in society. Until she came to the United States for college, she could not imagine such a world. Simin lives with the hope that better days are ahead for Afghanistan. “That is where I will return to serve. Sometimes I feel, with all my years studying here in this country, that I don’t have a place. But I have a huge passion. I am in a position to help, and this gives me much happiness.” — Paul Souder, class of '79