Hamidullah Muhammad Shah-Kabul
"I take my daughters to school every day to study. This is a new experience. I want their lives to be different from my life and the lives of their mother. I paid the price for my ignorance all my life. Why is there no doctor in Paktika Province? The reason is very clear, because families do not send their daughters to school, so where does it come from? Doctor? So I will do my best to teach my daughters. " This is how the Afghan Mia Khan says to Al Jazeera Net.
Mia Khan is the father of three girls studying at a school affiliated with the Swedish Schools Committee in Paktika state, in southeastern Afghanistan. He accompanies them to school every day, and waits for them until their departure.
This daily routine caught the attention of social media users especially Facebook pioneers, and was widely welcomed in Afghanistan. The social media pages are filled with pictures and titles of the Afghan citizen with his daughter for weeks in Afghanistan.
Mia Khan is a middle-aged and illiterate man, but he is trying his best to make a difference in the future of his daughters. They want to become doctors because their father hopes to teach his daughters to enter this field.
What Mia Khan is doing is a departure from tradition and norms, as no one has ever thought that a mother would accompany his daughters to school. How many Afghan girls have a father like Mia Khan?
| Mia Khan believes in the importance of educating girls because they have a fundamental role in society (Al-Jazeera) |
Afghan reality and challenges
Access to education is a challenge in Afghanistan after decades of war, and literacy rates remain low, especially among women in rural areas, and are among the lowest in the world, according to UNESCO.
Like the rest of the Afghans, Mia Khan grew up in a traditional family who believed that the most appropriate place for a girl or woman was her father's or husband's home, not the school or place of work.
Mia Khan lives in the Sharnah district of Paktika state, and her parents still do not realize the importance of girls going to schools, but Mia Khan tells Al-Jazeera Net “I know and hear that people are not satisfied with my girls allowing me to continue their studies and transfer them daily to school, but I don't care what they say About me because I know that my daughters are truly in school, and I will make them happy to realize each one's dreams.
The role of women in society is more important than that of men, and women can make a big difference in society, as Mia Khan believes.
Mia Khan and hope for a better future
The writer and social researcher Hikmat Jalil talks to Al-Jazeera Net about the case of Mia Khan and what he does daily, stressing that the case of Mia Khan is unique in Paktika Province for two reasons, the first of which is that he cares about the education of his daughters and he is illiterate, but he knew the importance of education and school in daily life because he suffered from not The presence of female doctors and nurses in the whole state.
The second reason is that taking his daughters every day to school is a departure from the traditions and customs prevailing in this state, and you rarely find a match for this case, and Paktika is one of the southeastern states in Afghanistan that suffer from security tension and cultural restrictions, but Mia Khan can be hope for A better future in this region, according to social researcher Hikmat Jalil.
| Afghan Education Minister honors Wakil Khan who donated land to build a school (Communication sites) |
Donate a piece of his land
After the fall of the Taliban government in 2001 and due to the widespread awareness of the importance of education, these traditions that tribes have inherited from past generations have changed, and in another rare case, Wakeel Khan donated his $ 60,000 plot of land to build the school in his village.
"There was no school in my village," Khan told the island. "The situation was very painful for me. I wanted to donate a plot of land to build a school for girls, and if necessary I would donate another piece because education is the only solution to solving our problems."
"I am an illiterate man, but educating my daughters is of great value." |
Transferring the Gulf experience in education
Hekmat Jalil adds that many of the people of Khost and Paktia and Paktika provinces work in the Gulf states in construction work, and through their work there they felt the importance of education being illiterate, so they wanted to transfer this experience to their villages and villages in the hope of effecting change in the future of their sons and daughters.
The number of girls in government schools reached nearly 3 million students across Afghanistan, but the security situation reflects a danger to their lives, as 192 schools in Afghanistan were attacked only last year, as 500,000 children were deprived of their right to an education.