Posts tagged Women

I was six when the Taliban took over Afghanistan and made it illegal for girls to go to school. So for the next five years, I dressed as a boy to escort my older sister — who was no longer allowed to be outside alone — to a secret school. It was the only way we both could be educated.Each day we took a different route so that no one would suspect where we were going. We would cover our books in grocery bags so it would seem like we were just out shopping. The school was in a house — more than 100 of us packed into one small living room. It was cozy in winter, but extremely hot in summer. We all knew we were risking our lives: the teacher, the students, and our parents. From time to time, school would suddenly be cancelled for a week because the Taliban were suspicious. We always wondered what they knew about us. Were we being followed? Do they know where we live? We were scared, but still, school was where we wanted to be. —From Shabana Basij-Rasikh’s TEDxWomen talk, “Dare to educate Afghan girls.” Shabana, now 22, runs a school for girls in Afghanistan. Listen to her talk and read more about her work at TED.com.

I was six when the Taliban took over Afghanistan and made it illegal for girls to go to school. So for the next five years, I dressed as a boy to escort my older sister — who was no longer allowed to be outside alone — to a secret school. It was the only way we both could be educated.

Each day we took a different route so that no one would suspect where we were going. We would cover our books in grocery bags so it would seem like we were just out shopping.

The school was in a house — more than 100 of us packed into one small living room. It was cozy in winter, but extremely hot in summer.

We all knew we were risking our lives: the teacher, the students, and our parents. From time to time, school would suddenly be cancelled for a week because the Taliban were suspicious.

We always wondered what they knew about us. Were we being followed? Do they know where we live?

We were scared, but still, school was where we wanted to be.


—From Shabana Basij-Rasikh’s TEDxWomen talk, “Dare to educate Afghan girls.” Shabana, now 22, runs a school for girls in Afghanistan. Listen to her talk and read more about her work at TED.com.

I arrived in America … I found snow. I found Walmart, vacuum cleaners, and lots of food in the cafeteria … But during that moment, while I was here, I discovered a lot of [other] things. I learned that that ceremony that I went through when I was 13 years old, it was called female genital mutilation. I learned that it was against the law in Kenya. I learned that I did not have to trade part of my body to get an education. I had a right. And as we speak right now, 3 million girls in Africa are at risk for undergoing mutilation.

…Those things made me angry. I wanted to do something. As I went back, every time I went I found that my neighbors’ girls were getting married; they were getting mutilated; and here…the constant cries of those girls was on my face. I had to do something … I started to talking to the men of the village and mothers, and I said, “I want to give back, the way that I had promised you, that I would come back and help you. What do you need?”

As I [spoke] to the women, they told me, “You know what we need? We really need a school for girls,” because there had not been any schools for girls. And the reason they wanted the school for girls was because when a girl is raped when she is walking to school, the mother is blamed for that. If she got pregnant before she got married, the mother is blamed for that. And she’s punished. She’s beaten.

They said, “We want to put our girls in a safe place.”

I went to talk to the fathers. And the fathers, as you can imagine, they said, “We want a school for boys.” And I said, “Well, there are many men in my village who have been out and they’ve got an education. Why can’t they build a school for boys, and I’ll build a school for girls?”…and they agreed. And I told them I wanted them to show me a sign of commitment. And they did. They donated land, where we built the [first] girls’ school.

From Kakenya Ntaiya’s TEDxMidAtlantic talk, “The first school for Massi girls,” about her fight to attend school as a Massi woman, and how she came to found the first girls’ school in her village in Kenya.

Our favorite ideas from speakers at global TEDxWomen events

TEDxWomen is collecting the global TEDxWomen conversation on Storify, here are some of our favorite questions, quotes and thoughts from some of the over 150 TEDxWomen events that have happened over the past 2 days »

Find more by searching the #TEDxWomen hashtag on Twitter and following our TEDxWomen 2012 Events Twitter list. 

10 great images from TEDxWomen events around the world

For the past 2 days, over 150 TEDxWomen events have convened in 53 countries to augment the conversation on women occupying “The Space Between” in their work, personal life, faith, social status, the media and in their education.

Here are just a few photos from some of these events, find more on Flickr and Instagram with the #TEDxWomen hashtag. And on the TEDx Facebook page soon »

At TEDxShanghaiWomen, attendees enjoyed local speakers as well as the first session of TEDxWomen.

Watching the TEDxWomen stream at the Google Fibre Lounge in Kansas City at TEDxKC.

A performance from TEDxAmsterdamWomen.

Conversations shared at TEDxLacadorWomen in Brazil.

Onstage at TEDxHobokenWomen in New Jersey, USA.

Attendees of TEDxPUCGoiasWomen watch the TEDxWomen livestream, interpreted in Portuguese.

Local improv group Thumbs Up! had the TEDxElliotBayWomen crowd roaring with laughter.

Women at TEDxCentennialParkWomen doing some opening-event Zumba.

An intimate gathering in Amman, Jordan is TEDxRasAlEinSquareWomen. Attendees ate cupcakes and smoked shisha.