9/ll Widows Turn Tragedy into Triumph

By raising chickens in their yard—twenty-nine between them—Sahera and Sadiqa are able to earn a small but steady income, not easy for widows in this conservative, Muslim society, where women’s work outside the home is frowned on. Their family eats better, too; fresh eggs and chicken, as well as the food they buy with cash.

The two sisters-in-law carry a heavy burden. They each have five children, and also must care for their late husbands’ mother, who lost six sons in the war. The elderly woman, crippled with grief, kisses Sadiqa’s hand as she cries, “I have no one else but these two.” Patti and Susan embrace the women and cry along with them.

To Sahera and Sadiqa, any sacrifice is worth bearing if it means their children can go to school. “It is my greatest wish that one day my children can get educated,” says Sahera. “That is a hundred times more important than my own happiness.” Her three daughters are able to attend school—for now. “But there is a problem,” she says. “After a few years, my girls will be young women, and they will face cultural pressure and disapproval from the neighbors if they don’t stay at home.”

CARE has long been committed to helping girls like Sahera’s break those barriers. Even at the height of the Taliban’s repressive rule, when girls were officially forbidden to go to school, more than 20,000 girls were enrolled in CARE’s education programs, which help communities organize and run their own schools.

Another important component helps girls who missed out on education during the Taliban years catch up, completing two grades each year. “Schools for girls are very important, so they don’t get married without an education,” says Nasima, principal of the CARE-supported Qala e Zaman Khan village school, where 166 girls attend grades one to six. “The boys will have the opportunity to learn in any case, in schools, mosques and the street.”

Even widows who first came to HAWA to collect a food supplement are catching education fever where classes in literacy and basic math are an integral part of the program. Patti and Susan visit one such class, held in a mud-brick home in Kabul’s hilly District Seven. The students speak of how they plan to use their new skills to keep accounts for their small businesses and to help their children learn.