Saturday, May 05, 2018 Vol. 2, No. 87 Star Educational Society Weekly

Interstellar (adjective): situated or occurring between the stars; conducted, or existing between two or more stars

A message from Ali Reza Yasa, founder and chairman of Star Educational Society

“To be, or not to be,” was the question raised by Shakespeare in Hamlet. His question fundamen-tally touched the very essence of the human philosophy of existence. For Hazaras, this was the question of everyone... every freedom fighter, every revolutionary, every deserv-ing soul who sought the respect and dignity of human freedom. For Shakespeare, these were words in a play, but for us, this question is a matter of life and death. Just like Adorno as he writes in his book Aus-chwitz, we remain alive to be wit-ness to what happened to our fellow countrymen, to continue our strug-gle, and to gain the rights of all those who were silenced and martyred. In the bloody deserts of Urozgan, King Abdul Rahman decided that 63% of Hazaras were “not to be.” And in to-day’s attack, evil powers of the world united to bring the dark, sable cloud of oppression on Hazaras again, robbing them of the question “to be, or not to be” and leaving but a scratch on the walls of history to re-mind future generations what hap-pened.

“To be, or not to be” has always been the greatest question of justice seekers from any corner of the world who have pooled their efforts and endured a lifetime of torture and af-fliction to stand against the tyranny of cruelty, be it Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Ghan-di, Balkhi, Ibrahim Gow-sawar, Faiz Mohammad Kateb, or Baba Mazari. However, in the current unfavorable circumstances of blood and fire, the armies of death must not be victo-rious. The Taliban, ISIS, or even the retrogressive circle of wicked and corrupt, fascist politicians must know that if they spread the news of death and tyranny to snatch the pencils, books or precious smiles from the hopeful faces of our inno-cent children, they may suffer from their own stupidity. Our young gen-

eration is more determined than be-fore, they are stronger than before, and will line up to say ‘no’ to tyranny and ‘yes’ to democracy and free and fair elections. Our new generation is a human chain which stands up-right and strong, tall and proud, for peace, sustainable development, and a society of justice and equality.

In order for justice to prevail, and to have a society free from violence and injustice, active participation in elections is the ultimate logical way. The biggest and most promi-nent democracies of the world have suffered many shortfalls, insuffi-ciencies and flaws. Even now, the elections in the vibrant, popular American democracy resulted in the election of Donald Trump who has told over 2,000 proven lies in just 355 days of his presidency.

However, the American public has not given up hope and has not given up on democracy. Instead, the American people have had stronger participation. The status of democ-racy in the U.S. is presumed to have achieved a position which leads the world, and was the result of many sacrifices, hardship, and a gigantic ocean of troubles toward democ-ratization... facing huge ebbs and flows in the process. Have they been able to solve the problems of mi-norities in over 200 years of democ-racy? Do they still face radical, white supremacists, who, like Hitler and fascism, spread a value of self-su-premacy and segregation? Nonethe-less, is it not the same society that has the pride of giving birth to Mar-tin Luther King Jr., Barack Obama, Maya Angelou, Mohammad Ali Clay, Malcolm X, and Michael Jackson, who belonged to a long-suppressed racial minority in U.S. history?

Why are Afghans so intolerant? Why is our society an intolerant so-ciety? Why do we so quickly want everything to be ideal? It’s not that I support or legitimize the current sit-

uation as being unavoidable. It’s that I believe that we have to work by the sweat of our brows, be patient, re-alistic, and never give up. If a tribal commander or a jihadi leader raises his concerns against the very prin-cipal of elections, I can understand, since elections, at a minimum, will illegitimize their leadership and sovereignty, and, in the long run, affects their hereditary succession of power. I am, however, shocked to see some farmer’s children who have worked hard to get education and yet find elections useless. These are the people who have neither the background of being a jihadi nor do they have the background of being armed, a paratrooper, or militia. Why are these poor farmers’ chil-dren so much against elections and the democratic system?

I, as a farmer’s son, have faced hardships to receive an education and have changed my life through those efforts. I believe that if we want a situation in which to dem-onstrate our best skills, knowledge, and education.... if we want to cre-ate an opportunity for development by having an impact in society.... if we do not want the opportunities to be limited to the children of cur-

rent leaders... our only solution is democracy.

I agree that our two elections had many problems. There was a high level of corruption, fraud, and misrepresentation of the results. However, the only solution to fight electoral corruption and fraud is also elections. Elections are not a social experience confined to one or two countries. They are a pathway toward justice celebrated in more than 95% of the civilized world and countries. If we had elections dur-ing all those years that we fought, we would have had a better system. And if we do not consider elections seriously now, twenty years later we will again have to come back and walk this path. And, in that sense, we will just have wasted twenty more years of our political lives similar to these past three decades of war.

May peace be upon your bleed-ing hearts and may our martyred young and old find eternal peace in the heavens and may their deaths not be in vain. Peace be upon you, the architects of our future... you, the strong wall of human chain who spread justice, freedom and equal-ity.

Love can open every border

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Who is Mohammad Salah?

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A Reflection of the movie 12 Strong

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A Passion for Learning and Teaching

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The importance of elections

Inside

2. Personal Essays3. community4-5. News6. Opinion7. Literary8. Interview

See Inside Quote of the Week "Liberty without learning is always in peril and learning without liberty is always in vain."

John F. Kennedy

May 05th, 2018

Vol.2, No. 87 Personal Essays

Page 2

About the author: Rajab Ali Ahmad is a Star alumnus and former teacher at Star. He is currently working with UNAMA and is a sophomore studying international re-lations at Avicenna University.

About the author: Ramazan Jafari is a Star alumnus and teaches in Star C Branch. He will enter grade 12 next year. He intends to study structural engineer-ing abroad.

Having remembered my teacher’s words, which were still echoing in my head as if they had shaped part of my brain, I kept working hard and thought of the moment as a turning point in my life. It obviously does not mean that I forgot my father’s illness.

My classmates were surprised and amazed seeing me happy one day and unhappy, and disappointed the other day. Sometimes, they were coming to me and asking if I could tell them about my problems. In addition, they were bringing me some homemade pastries so I could share them what was burning me on the inside. As the

I was in grade 7 that I heard about Star from my friends and classmates. I wanted to learn English because I had problems with my English subject at school. Unfortunately, in governmen-tal schools we can’t learn a language, especially English very well. There-fore, I decided to study this language

more academically and correctly, but how? I asked my friends and class-mates about many English centers. As a result, I frequently heard about "Star."

When I first heard about Star, I did not know much about it. I decided to visit this center and start study-ing English there. When I reached the gate of Star’s C Branch, I saw some students speaking in English. I told the office manager with a trembling voice, "Madam, do you teach basic English here?" She said, "Yes, we do. You must take an assessment test, first.” After taking the paper test and the speaking test, I was eligible for Prep One class and paid 500 Afghanis to join the class.

Entering the class for the first time, I was very excited and enthusiastic to learn. That semester, I got the second position in our class. Studying the first four levels, I was not able to speak English very well because I did not commit to work hard. During Level One, Two and Three, there were many excellent opportunities. Mr. Reza Azad provided us with many helpful

materials and we had lectures every Saturday. I never missed topic days and participated in all lectures. Level Four with Mr. Zakaria Bahadari was a motivational level that helped me be a better student and improved my language skills. In Levels Five and Six, I had many talented classmates who motivated me very much. Receiving my certificate was very joyful.

After completing all those levels, I promised myself to earn my Diploma of English without any breaks. I stud-ied Advanced A and B at Star A branch which was totally different from C branch. It was more academic and the teachers’ pronunciation was like native speakers. In Advanced levels, my teacher was Jawad Jamal, whose speaking skills influenced me very much. Although his lectures were re-ally difficult for me, I strived to absorb all that was discussed in the class. Ul-timately, I graduated from Star's Eng-lish Language Program, earning a B-graded diploma (88%) in 2014.

Getting my diploma marked a new beginning... enhancing my language skills by attending Mr. Ali Reza Yasa's

Teacher Training course. His Eng-lish impacted my English. In Teacher Training we had many memorable, cheerful moments, and I learned grammatical points, body language, writing essays and many other in-structive points. We translated for In-terstellar and wrote personal essays. The more I learn, the more respon-sibilities I have on my shoulders to carry on.

Finally, I started a new chapter of my life with Star - honoring the "Teacher" position at this institu-tion. I joined Star’s family and started teaching at C Branch. I got this great job with its many responsibilities. I need to be active and responsible in order to be a good instructor; besides, I must be hardworking. Teaching can help me interact with diverse students and continue to learn more. My com-rades and colleagues can be very in-fluential. I learn so much from them. To conclude, I would like to say to the readers of this article that you need to persist until you become an expert in whatever fields that you have chosen.

first position holder in the class, I was also responsible to call the attendance sheet, and even I had to teach the class, sometimes. That is why, most of the time, the two opposing worries, losing my father because of his illness and losing the first position because of thinking of my father’s condition, didn’t let me be a good student. In the blink of an eye, I realized that it was the end-term exam and we had to prepare ourselves for them. Although I passed all my exams, I believed that it would no more be possible for me to get the first position. Waiting for a few days for the results to be compiled, we finally went to school to get our result sheets.

As soon as I entered the class, my heart started beating faster and bouncing in an abnormal way, and telling me something very confi-dential, “You have gotten the first position.” The moment our teacher stepped into the class, everything went wrong with me and I, who used to teach the class, began to change color_ getting red, white, and even pale_ and sweat. My comrades asked me if I was sick or something was wrong. In order to show that nothing was wrong, I bravely said that I was ok and everything was fine while they didn’t know my whole body was in rain and shower because of the result.

Standing in front of the class, greeting each student, and finding them eerily quiet, the teacher called my name and the names of some oth-er students who were the tough rivals

of mine. While standing adjacent to my teacher, I couldn’t balance myself. I was shivering like I was wearing no clothes, wobbling like a drunk, and looking pale as though I had a chronic disease. However, everything changed when I heard these words mumbled by my teacher, “You are the first, you made it and you can always make it, you don’t fail, and everybody will clap for you.” Hearing these words, I couldn’t believe my eyes, couldn’t breathe for a moment. After a while all my classmates gave me a big round of applause. After taking a puff of fresh air and a deep breath, I sprang like a spring and said, “Yes, I can make it.” I spent the rest of my day with class-mates and really enjoyed.

When I arrived home, it was 4:00 pm and my father was asleep. I closed the ajar window above my father’s bed so that he would not feel clod. But un-fortunately, the window sound woke him up. Opening his sick-fallen eyes, he asked me about the result. “What does my result have to do with you, father?” I thought, “I got the first po-sition, father,” I quietly said. My fa-ther tried to kiss me in the cheek as a present for getting the first position but couldn’t because he wasn’t able to move. I moved my head down and found his blistered hands around my sun-burned neck murmuring, “well done!” and then turned around. “He is now happy and will sleep well,” I thought. I just went close to put the blanket on him but saw something ag-onizing. I saw his tears, like hail, roll-

ing down his crestfallen face which made me go crazy. I madly started crying as well. He said in a shaky voice that he had nothing left from what he saved for rainy day and couldn’t buy me anything as a gift for my position. I put his head on my lap and said, “I don’t study for gifts, I study to make a fortune, father.”

To be continued …

Success

My English Journey at Star

Vol.2, No. 87Community

Page 3May 05th, 2018

Afghanistan is a country of con-trasts. The safety situation is unsta-ble and the country has been suffer-ing from war for the past decades. Military conflicts, social inequalities and attacks have left little hope for a soon to come peaceful solution. In the middle of all these conflicts young people have started to cre-ate a vision of a peaceful world and work against all odds towards a new and human world. Nematullah Ah-angosh is one of these young people and reports for us from Kabul:

We live in an era in which a hu-man life has lost its meaning. We can put ourselves on the moon but for some of us it is dangerous to simply walk on the streets. We think that we are connected with one an-other through social media but we have never been less connected like this in our history. We think we can eradicate terrorism by drones but we are wrong, civilians, Humans are killed by those drones. But all of this behavior is destructive and we are knowingly taking part in this destruction. What lies behind all of these destructive behaviors?

I believe that we have lost touch with our purpose. At schools we are taught to find a job and make mon-ey but no one teaches us how to love each other and how to be happy, the education systems make us un-quenchable of money and power. But while some are accumulating more and more wealth, another one of us dies from hunger or drought.

If we look closer to everything that happens in our crazy world to-day we can infer that, we humans

became mainly destructive. We contaminate the environment, we cause inequality and we kill each other and behave violently. We are a group of young afghans who think that the conclusion should be to abolish war: War against one anoth-er as humans, but also war against nature. We are the Afghan Peace Vol-unteers.

The Afghan Peace Volunteers Six years ago they came as vol-

unteers with the vision of building a green, equal and nonviolent world without war. In Afghanistan, we the Afghan Peace Volunteers, realize that a root cause of war is that peo-ple across the world don’t treat one another as equals. They divide into “them and us” and divide humanity into various groups to which they award different rights. But science has already proofed that the ge-nome of all human beings are 99.9% similar. So, when we’re tempted to fight and harm one another, re-member we’re harming members of the same human family. We are all related. But for a long time the earth and our human family has been exploited, divided from one another, de-humanized and made to live disparate and self-interested lives. We, as members of the human family wish to change this through relationships! Relating will heal and liberate!

#Earth GENThe Afghan Peace Volunteers

currently have 17 teams and initia-tives. One of them is the #Earth GEN!

Initiative. It is a Grassroot-initiative consisting or ordinary Afghan Youth who want to try out nonviolent al-ternatives. Members are from vari-ous ethnical backgrounds and vol-unteer in various peace-building and service programs in Kabul, nur-turing nonviolent, egalitarian rela-tionships with Nature and with the human family across all borders.

GEN is short for GENeration and an acronym for Green, Equal and Nonviolent. We intentionally make friends with Nature and all mem-bers of the human family, because we believe that love (nonviolence) can change everything. We want to redirect resources from the crises of global warming, inequality and war toward building viable con-crete Green, Equal and Nonviolent alternatives without war, including the abolition of war. The APV have therefore animated youth all over Kabul to get together in Earth GEN circles in which they have increased their awareness and understand-ing of the crises of global warming, socio-economic inequalities and violence with its wars. Their friend-ships and experiences have helped them to ‘connect the dots’. They are more and more convinced that they need to build a better Earth by nur-turing nonviolent relationships with Nature and with all members of the human family and live this instead of just talking about it. They feel a pressing need to connect with peo-ple across the world as Earth GEN, knowing that a critical mass move-ment is needed to heal themselves, the Earth and humanity.

The Afghan Peace Volunteers are an Earth GEN Community work-ing voluntarily at the Borderfree Nonviolence Community Centre in Kabul. Earth GEN communities are any two or more persons who relate and work together non-violently, along with others in the human family. Earth GEN Communities can use any space, including a room, a corner, a house, a meeting place, a restaurantor in a shop. Earth GEN Communities can use Borderfree Blue Scarves for solidarity across the world. You can make on your own Borderfree Blue Scarves or re-quest some from the Afghan Peace Volunteers in Kabul!

#Earth GENs Plan for 2018 Our plan is that new members

of the team will form small circles of five to ten youth from different ethnic groups. Each new Circle will have two one-hour circle conver-sations to get to know one another and to build trust. These circle ses-sions are conversations in which

participants share with one anoth-er their responses to pre-planned questions, as recorded in this brief report.

After two Circles, they would be-gin implementing three campaign actions: One campaign is the “Save Water” Campaign – there is a water crisis in Afghanistan, with wells dry-ing up due to climate change and falling water tables, and contamina-tion of water from the lack of proper sewerage systems. We want to col-lect ideas how to change this situa-tion. Another project is the project “multi-ethnicity”: Bringing togeth-er multi-ethnic youth – each new member will ask their friends to consider joining the team. Another campaign is the “Abolish war and weapons in our individual lives” for which the team will facilitate discussions at the Borderfree Non-violence Community Center on the root causes of war in Afghanistan, and practical strategies we can use to abolish war in their individual lives and families, as well as in the world.

We are positive that by connect-ing and building relationships and by collecting ideas, peace can hap-pen – no matter how visionary it might sound right now.

They and usThere is meThere is youThey are there, tooThey seek the right pathWe walk the right pathOur smile is strongTheir rifles are notThey fight and fightYet we listen, understand, Trust and support each otherThey fly dronesThey throw bombsWe fly kitesWe grow love We try to live peaceWe are less in numbersbut we’re together They are a crowd making noiseWe raise our voice We break the silence We make our presence our resis-tanceThey call us mad for what we doYes, we are, let us beBut not the way they areThey make the bordersand invade citiesWe break their bordersWe open the borders with loveAs in love there is no border

Love can open every border

Written by: Nematullah Ahangosh, Star alumni, and republished with permission from a German magazine.

About the Author:Nematullah Ahangosh is 22 years old and is the Coordinator of #Earth GEN! Team in Kabul. He is a member of the Afghan Peace Volunteers and loves to write (ahangosh.wordpress.com). You can find out more about the work of the Afghan Peace Volunteers here: enough.ourjourneytos-mile.com

Translated into German by Mona Bünnemann, researcher at Bielefeld University, Germany

Vol.2, No. 87 News

Twenty-six years ago on June 15th a child named Mohammad, later Mohammad Salah Ghali, was born in Nijrij Village in the province of Algharbia in Egypt. He was no different from others. A boy who would work hard in the village, ran after the ball, broke windows and ran away defaming the elderly.

Who is Mohammad Salah? Written by: Nemat RahimiTranslated by: Khalilullah Baha

The spokeswomen of White House said: “There are no changes at America’s mission in Syria and president is demanding that Amer-ican troops be withdrawn home.” This statement was said after the French president said: “I convinced Trump not to withdraw American forces from Syria.”

Sara Sanders, the spokeswomen of White House said to journalists that Donald Trump, the president of the US said: “I want to return Amer-ican forces home very soon.” Miss Sanders said, “We are committed in our mission to remove Daesh com-pletely and also we expect that our regional allies and partners should

accept their military and economic responsibility for having security in region.

Mr. Trump during his speech in Ohio said: “We will leave Syria very soon. We will let others continue this task. We will leave Syria very soon.”

Trump Demands that American Troops be Withdrawn from Syria

Source : Hasht e Subh Translated by : Mohammad Hashim Noori

Exactly fourteen years later he joined Almaqawloon Football Academy in Cairo. Football was his love. His life had no mean-ing without a ball, dust and the green rect-angle. He would every day travel a long four hour distance on a bus to get to the academy. There were days when he had to change buses eight to nine times. At that time Egypt’s national team had a friendly match with Almaqawloon Football Acad-emy. The talent seekers of the European clubs looking for talents anywhere possi-ble saw him. That was when Salah joined

Basel, the Swiss Football Club, in April 2012 signing a four-year contract. He be-came famous from the very beginning of his presence in the Green Continent and showed that he was a special and unique player. Basel had to play the Israeli team, Maccabi Haifa, in Euro League. Salah re-jected to shake hands with the opponents in that game. Basel’s club officials consid-ered that act of Salah a happening and denied the fact that their Muslim player had rejected shaking hands. It was said that Salah wouldn’t accompany his team in the second leg, but he traveled to Tel Aviv and to look friendly instead of shak-ing hands with the Israeli players, he had fist bumps with them.

The day when he won one of the top titles of the Swiss Football League, he had to hug a female singer, which caused him to be deadly criticized in Egypt. In 2014 Salah became the first Egyptian who stepped in Stamford Bridge in Lon-don. He wasn’t either very successful at Chelsea or wasn’t given the opportunity to demonstrate his talent. Some blamed Jose Mourinho’s tactics at the time. Then he joined Florence on loan. It was a beau-tiful city with a quiet atmosphere where he could recover and regain his lost mo-

tivation and return to the green rectangle. The Florentines hoped to sign a perma-nent contract with him, but he refused and joined Roma. He became a better player under Luciano Spalletti’s supervi-sion and his various tactics. He was set to go somewhere where he had gone be-fore - returning to Premier League and playing for Liverpool Football Club. Un-til that time, everyone had known him as a Chelsea defeat and didn’t believe in him. But he came to rebuild the biggest scene of his frustrations. Today, since his two winning goals against Congo, Salah is very popular in Egypt. Although he has never played for one of the popular Egyptian teams like Al Zamalek or Al Ahly, Egyptians love him and have nicknamed him “The brilliant light of the Arabic Football”, “The King”, and “The Egyptian Messi”. That’s why in the Egyptian presi-dential elections, to express their love for Salah, the people wrote his name on more than a million ballots. Now he is claiming to win the next European Gold Shoe. Under Jurgen Klopp’s supervision he has improved so much that no one in Anfield can remember Coutinho’s sepa-ration. Because it is Salah who is there. He is an extraordinary halfback, a good

scorer, an extreme runner, a clever passer, a good defender, an excellent presser and a clever dribbler. The Liverpool fans were entitled to say, “If City has a good team with tactical and technical coherence un-der Pep Guardiola’s supervision, we have Salah.” The night when Madhat Shalbi, the 73-year-old Egyptian reporter, during Egypt’s penalty against Congo, was shout-ing and crying, an Egyptian merchant couldn’t control his feelings and decided to give him a very luxurious and expen-sive house. However, Salah refused and said, “If you want to help, so give it to Ni-jrij Village in cash.”

After Salah’s great popularity in the world, one of the Egyptian media quoting one of the Salafi Muftis announced that Salah’s prostration after scoring a goal is non-religious and has asked him to leave football and repent.

On the other hand, after Liverpool defeated Porto in the Champions League 5-0, the Liverpool extreme fans said, “If Salah could score some more winning goals, they will all become Muslims.” In England, men love football more than their wives and in Egypt the people love football, too. We love Mohammad Salah.

May 05th, 2018Page 4

Vol.2, No. 87News

when entering her new home in a neighborhood of Vancouver, was the first to do a photo of her in yellow dresses, with hanging earrings and necklaces, on the table beside her.

This picture reminds Shakila Zar-rin of a life that she had before forced marriage before she had to flee from Afghanistan because of her life. Most importantly, this photo shows Shaki-la's face in a way that was before hang-ing her wife with a firing squad in her face and pulling a trigger and a target-ed shot.

Shakila, 23, says: "This picture is a nostalgic memoir of someone I was." Shakila continues, "Now that I see my-self, my eye is not in place, there is not my type, my lips are not, but I have this photo. »

Shakila is now in Canada taking a new life for herself after the United States suddenly withdrew her propos-al to resettle her as a refugee. But her problems and hardships began years ago; she was 17 when her sister's hus-band, a strong man with links to the Taliban in the northern province of Af-ghanistan, Baghlan, along with 20 oth-er men attacked at the Shakila's family home, with the intention of marrying her with her cousin , 14 years older than Shakila. Zarrin opposed the mar-riage, but his family was more vulnera-ble to the decision of their bridegroom because of the illness that Shakila's fa-

ther had left behind.The insult and persecution of

Shakila began on the same night as her wedding. Shakila, who rarely recounts her past life by pausing, continued with the help of an interpreter: "He began to lecture and rape me." Shakila urged the police to help her. But in re-sponse to Shakila, the police said: "He did not cut off Shaki-Lash's nose, lips, ears, or something like that. So we can not do anything for you. "

" I was completely disappointed, " Shakila says. They destroyed any hopes that could be done. "With the broken heart went to her mother's house. Her husband, who had been informed about the day she had been in the police station, - the same night, along with two others, rose up from the walls of the Shakila father's house. In the darkness of the night, Zarrin saw a gun in the hands of her unknowing husband. She remembers: "As soon as we met, he shot me."

The next morning, Shakila woke up at a hospital in Kabul, while miracu-lously firing it, as well as a 260-mile-long expedition along a mountainous high road. It was pain throughout her, and at first she thought it was a bad dream. Then she gently slid her fingers over her face and found that half of her face was lost. "I was amazed at what I did to deserve such inhuman treat-ment," She says.

The Indian government transferred her to Delhi and paid 9 surgeries to restore her face over more than three years. Surgery had a lot of complica-tions for Shakila, and in one case, the doctors warned her mother that she would not survive.

Shakila Zarrin recalls that her sis-ter's husband continued to persecute her, albeit more than 600 miles away from her: "He said," We will follow you, we will kill you, mother and sister. "" Her

Sister's husband, Last year, told the Guardian that Shakila has been shot by herself. Shakila's husband, who was imprisoned after shooting for 10 months, ignored the Guardian's re-quest for interviews several times.

Shakila, who was horrified by the prospect of her return to Afghanistan, went to the United Nations Office in India to seek asylum. In 2016, her ap-plication was accepted conditionally for resettlement in the United States, and she began to dream of her new life as a result of her miserable husband.

But the plans she had for her new life did not last a long time; one year later she was told that the United States had canceled her proposal for "security-related" reasons. Shakila re-members: "I could not believe it and cried the whole way to the house. That message was so much affecting that I was sick and forced to go to the hos-pital. "

Some people suspect the United States may have stopped accepting it because of the relationship between her husband and her brother, Shakila, with the Taliban. This thought makes Shakila Zarrin angry.

"These are the bad guys who hurt

me," She says. Those who injured me shot me and took away a lot of my life from me. It is because of them that I am here. So why do you get stuck and blame me? " Shakila says that similar-national security concerns may have led Sweden to reject her request for asylum.

Months passed until Zarrin's hope revived; this time after Canada agreed to accept her as a refugee. In January, Shakila Zarrin, along with her mother and one of her sisters, came to Vancou-ver, Canada.

Shortly after the deployment, Shakila asked her to test the capacity and acceptance of her new home by dropping the bandage on her left eye, which she used in public at the time of firing on her face.

"I thought people would hurt me, they would stop me, or they would stare at me ... but nobody even got bothered," she says. Shakila Zarrin, af-ter years of trying to hide her wounds, felt that she was finally Finding a place where she can concentrate on rebuild-ing her life.

Shakila's new life is still mixed with fear; while she feels safe in life in Can-ada, she's worried about the day her husband and brother in the capital find her in Canada.

But she does not accept kicking and going to stealth, inspires the frame of a picture that surrounds her bed and inspires the joyous journey that took place after taking the picture. Shakila Zarrin says: "I was strong at that time, because I always struggled and stood for myself. But now I'm stronger. So i won't be silent anymore !

How did Shakila survive after being shot because of forced marriage and arrived in Canada?

Source: Etilaatroz Translated by: Ali Reza Shirzad

There are about 30 swimming pools in Kabul for men and only one pool for women. These pools are made by the private sector, and swimming at this pool costs a lot, which has led to the fact that women are not able to go on a regu-lar basis. Despite the many challenges in this way, there are girls who have been on the move with personal expense and are trying to set off the difficulties of cre-ating a women's national swim team.

Helina Sabouri is one of those ladies. She first went to the pool and swam three years ago with the opening of the first women's pool in Kabul. "I did not know how to swim before, and when I opened a dock for women in Kabul, I could learn to swim using video tutori-als on the Internet, and I've been swim-ming along with twenty ladies," she said.

Ms. Sabouri is now the head of the Women's Swimming Committee in Af-ghanistan, and she said she was about one and a half years, when she created the committee. "I created the Ladies' Bathing Committee alone, and I man-aged to make the ladies who were swim-ming and the other ones I taught, to

form a team," she says. These girls, for a while, were able to go on their own bud-get, but because they were students and did not have the ability to pay for dock, clothes and other supplies for swim-ming, and on the one hand, they were not helped by the swimming federation or the physical education department, this team Scattered There are still ladies who swim with it. I'm not disappointed and I'm on my own."Breaking taboo

The story of Helina Sabouri, coach of the women's bathing committee in the conservative Afghan society, por-trays the dimensions of women's bath-ing challenges. Especially in a country where the opposing views of women's sports are very broad.

"Traditionally, in our traditional so-ciety, some girls are questioning girls in the Muslim world," she says. "When it comes to women's swimming, it's in the image of a naked lady in the image of the people, but it's not. I, with my personal budget, managed to get two I will make the Islamic women's clothing model. "

Hellenay has long since received a

formal coaching license from the Na-tional Directorate of Physical Education of the National Olympic Committee. Now her next step is to more formally promote the presence of other girls in sports. They teach the techniques of this sport. His and his colleagues plan to identify the successful figures in this field can create the national women's swim team in the future.Olympics 2020

Less than two years have passed since the 2020 Olympics. Afghan federa-tion officials say the federation is deter-mined to participate in the 2020 Olym-pics with little more than two men and one woman. If this decision is made, Helina will be the first female swimmer in the history of Afghanistan to take part in the Olympic Games.

"I decide if I can get a short train-ing course abroad," she said, "to learn professionally and to go back and teach other girls in my country profession-ally."Traditional beliefs

Shakila is one of the girls who hopes to swim and learn professionally, but lack of proper swimming pools, fam-ily barriers, lack of facilities to learn the sport, security problems, and tradi-tional people's sight have not led to this ambition.

"How many times I went swimming to the pool, but then I encountered my

father's opposition," she says. My father says that the situation is not good, and if you get to the pond, you will be in a hurry, "she said. The only women's pool in Kabul is secretly working because of security problems.

Swimming in Afghanistan is a new sport and doesn't have any history re-cord. The Federation of Swimming was established in 2004 as an independent federation in the National Olympic Committee of Afghanistan.

Qassim Hamidi is the deputy director of the Physical Education Department and chairman of the Afghan Swimming Association. "In addition to trying to create a decent base for women, we will work more on women's development, growth and education," he said in a statement at 8am. "For the first time, we launched an aquatics training course, We have been organizing and training women for women, and 12 of them have still been trained in the course."

Mr. Ghasemi continues," The big-gest reason still remains to be done on sports, especially swimming." Ladies are not traditional; our community is traditional. Although I do not think the terrain is different from the general bathroom for women, the traditional issues of family hardening and the lack of security in the country have made ev-eryone cumbersome. "

Swimming, a New and Challenging Sport for Women

Source: THEWORLDNEWSTranslated by: Ali Reza Shirzad

Page 5May 05th, 2018

A Reflection of the movie 12 StrongI missed watching this movie

when it was released on January 19th. Every time I attempted to watch it, something came up and I delayed seeing it for another time.

Tonight, despite having a bit of a headache and no appetite for any-thing specific, the idea of watching 12 Strong hit my mind. I pulled out my phone, pressed on Google voice search and uttered these words: “12 Strong showtimes near me.” The re-sult was: “Kingsway Theatre Royal York at 9:25 PM.”

I reached the theatre on time and bought my ticket. After a few min-utes waiting in the lounge, we were directed to the 2nd floor, and into a small room where 12 Strong would be shown. As usual, the movie start-ed with a few short ads. Then, like most Hollywood war movies, the hero of the story is talking to his fam-ily in a manner that creates suspense for the viewer. While he is preparing his daughter for school, a faint voice from the TV can be heard reporting an incident. Suddenly, the whole family focuses on the television. The twin towers in New York City were hit by airplanes.

The story follows a team of twelve U.S. Special Forces, and their team leader, Captain Mitch Nelson, as they head to Afghanistan to fight Al-Qae-da. Their goal is to take out members of the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. Their first stop is a military base in Uzbekistan close to Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan.

The team of twelve are dropped in arid mountains where they must meet General Abdul Rashid Dostum, one of the main Northern Alliance, anti-Taliban, leaders. Finally, they meet the man with horse soldiers and the real story begins. Dostum is welcomed by his soldiers with gun fire in the meeting point, similar to fireworks on holidays or celebra-tions. He seems to lack awareness of military strategy and tactics. He at-tacks Taliban without coordination and leaves the Americans at odds. He doesn't believe what the American team leader stresses on; the strategy, coordination, and tactics.

After a few uncoordinated bomb-ings of Taliban bases, attacks, and counter-attacks, they reach to Ma-zar-e-Sharif gates. Here a new prob-lem arises. Mohammad Atta, anoth-er Northern Alliance leader, but an obstinate rival to Dostum, marches to the city of Mazar from another di-rection which makes Dostum angry at the Americans.

The battle with Taliban goes on and, finally, the two leaders meet in the proximity of the city, but Dos-

tum lets Atta enter Mazar this time. The American team leader becomes happy with this act of forgiveness and bravery.

I have a few considerations re-garding the authenticity of the ac-counts represented in this movie, and the realities of Afghanistan at that time. First of all, this is an ex-treme depiction of what Afghanistan was like at that time. Afghanistan is depicted as a country of barbaric practices and acute poverty with mythical-like characters. Of course, there was poverty, violence, and dif-ficulty with barbaric rule. What has been stereotyped in this movie is an extreme view common in western media when it comes to the depic-tion of third world countries.

The setting of this movie is bar-ren, rugged, and arid mountain ter-rain, while the so-called battlefield is really a mixture of dry hillside farms and villages with bushy outlooks. Especially one of the battles, taking place in a village called Shoulgara, which is a green and beautiful dis-trict, far bigger than a village, with a river running through it. However, in the movie, it's quite the opposite.

The second issue is the dissimi-larity of the setting with Mazar—as mentioned, there is less resem-blance between the real geographic landscape and what's portrayed in the movie. One of these disparities is a small village in southern Mazar where the two Northern Alliance leaders meet. There is no common-ality between what is in the movie and any area of the city outskirts. The southern part of Mazar gradu-ally stretches to mountains, but the landscape is quite beautiful, and one can see the city from the hillsides.

Thirdly, is the extreme view of the human relations—what has been de-picted in the movie is somehow the reality in terms of human relations of how women and children are treat-ed, yet, it's some level above the re-ality. Wherever the women and chil-dren are shown, they are portrayed in such a way that anyone would believe that all Afghans are naturally against women and children. The fourth issue is the lack of presence of other key warlords, especially the Hazaras. In Mazar-e- Sharif, Hazara fighters were more significant than Dostum and Atta, but there's no sign of them in the movie. This indicates the flawed and crooked view of the western media on the multi-faceted realities of the third world. Stereo-typing and sweeping generalizations are the ingredients of western media in such contexts.

Lastly, the story looks like an un-

accomplished mission, so that it would be more meaningful to have a series of the same story to make sense and expand the main occur-rences of the war in Afghanistan. In addition, taking control of Mazar was not the single most important event in the fight against Taliban. I clearly remember that the U.S was against any militia groups entering Kabul before an agreement was reached on an interim administration to fill the void and include everyone. One of the Northern Alliance main militia

groups, an hour away from Kabul, did not heed the U.S.’s advice and entered the city. Meanwhile, con-quering other provinces such Herat, Bamyan, Jalalabad, and Kandahar were equally as important as Mazar.

Overall, I liked the movie. It was super dramatic, with a lot of suspense. I wondered why it was so short, in terms of length. I had thought it was about half an hour long, but it was really over two hours. I left in awe, and my headache was gone!

Written by: Esmatullah Sahebdil, a Star alum-nus and Humphrey Fellow.

Vol.2, No. 87 Opinion

May 05th, 2018Page 6

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claim,Because it was grassy and wanted wear;Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.”

Robert Frost (1874-1963) was an Ameri-can poet, famous for his depictions of rural life, command of colloquial speech and rhythm, and us-ing nature to explore the human experi-ence. He has received four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry.

The Road Not Taken

Vol.2, No. 87Literary

by Robert Frost

Page 7May 05th, 2018

universities, the main problem is with the applying of curriculums. They may have good curriculum, but they couldn’t apply it correctly. Curriculum includes not only headings, but also Facilities, professional lecturers, laboratory, etc. in addition, students’ abilities who gradu-ates from 12th grade, are also consider-able in curriculum. For instance, most of the times lecturers couldn’t apply our curriculum correctly due to having un-qualified students.

Overall, how is the curriculum of main subjects in IT Department? IT Department’s curriculum includes three categories; basic subjects, professional subjects and optional subjects. More-over, all subjects are on Credit Systems. Once again I want to clarify that we do not have any problem with curriculum. Our problem is with applying curricu-lum. I mean that we do not have enough required equipment in our department.

Please give us brief information on lecturers of IT department? Overall, we have eight lecturers in our department. IT Department has good and young lecturers who have Master’s degree at least. Lecturers of this department have graduated from Iran, Malaysia, India, Ja-pan and Germany. In addition, we have some lecturers who are currently major-ing their Ph.D. in abroad.

What is the main purpose of ICT (Information Communication Tech-nology) in Shahid Rabbani Kabul Edu-cation University? ICT was established for the purpose of promoting lecturers’ knowledge, staff’s abilities, accelerat-ing internet access and developing stu-dents’ IT career at Shahid Rabbani Kabul

Saturday, May 05, 2018 Vol. 2, No. 87

Education University. What are your future plans for

promoting IT Department? We have short-term as well as long-term plans. In short-term plans, we want to promote teaching quality. Promotion of teaching quality includes having a standard cur-riculum, class observation and updated facilities.

But in long-term plans, we want to establish Master’s degree and Ph.D. pro-grams in our university. Nowadays, we cannot compare our country with other countries according to development and promotion of Information Technol-ogy. For instance, we cannot use cor-rectly from knowledge of our bachelor’s graduates as well as master’s gradu-ates according to international mar-kets’ needs. Most of the projects which were developed in our country, caused double costs. For instance, Website De-velopment, Network Design, Systems Configuration, Network Management, etc. However, these projects could be developed with half of given costs.

And finally, what is your message to Interstellar Bulletin readers? My mes-sage to Interstellar Bulletin readers is this: Our country future is on our young generation’s hands. So, you have to pay more attention to your lives in two sec-tions; Your Education and The national issues of our country. Try to learn with a great motivation, inspiration and se-riousness. Be open-minded with your colleagues and family. As you know our present is the result of our past. So, your best preparation for tomorrow, is doing your best today.

of Natural Sciences since 2004. This de-partment promoted to faculty under the name of Computer Science Faculty in 2013. Finally, this faculty was renamed to Computer Education and Information Technology Faculty after consideration of Ministry of Higher Education in 2016. Now, this faculty operates in two depart-ments (IT & IS). The required score of Kankor Examination for IT (Information Technology) Department was 259-290 in 2017. In addition, the required score of Kankor Examination for IS (Informa-tion System) Department was 246-287 in 2017. Moreover, each department ac-cepts only 60 students in each year.

How many students have been graduated from Computer Education and Information Technology Faulty? And what are your agendas for promo-tion of Students’ abilities? 784 students have been graduated from this faculty; 579 males and 205 females. IT Depart-ment has various agendas regarding quality enhancement, updating curricu-lum package, and laboratory modern-ization.

What is the main purpose of Cisco Networking Academy in IT Depart-ment? The main purpose of Cisco Net-working Academy is to promote stu-dents’ networking abilities. In addition, we want to teach our students Practical Networking Lessons in Cisco Network-ing Academy.

Please give us brief information on Cisco Online Exams. It looks hard to give brief information on Cisco Online Ex-ams. Each student should be enrolled in elementary Cisco courses, and then they will be required to take an online exam. This exam will be scheduled by super-visor of Cisco Networking Academy. In addition, this online exam has one hour and half up to two hours allowed time. If the student could not answer to all ques-tions in allowed time, the exam would be ended automatically. Each student would be scored according to his/her correct answers. Furthermore, each student would have a separate account on official website of Cisco Networking Academy.

What is the importance of Cisco Networking Academy’s certificates? Students can use from these certificates throughout the world, because most of universities and colleges use from Cisco curriculum. In addition, students who obtained their certificates success-fully can pursue other Cisco courses in abroad.

How do you consider the curricu-lums of governmental universities in Afghanistan? As I think we cannot judge all curriculums of governmental univer-sities in Afghanistan equally. Universi-ties have high-ranking quality as well as poor quality curriculums. In most of

Please tell us briefly about yourself. I am Qurban Ali Frugh, a lecturer, Cisco Instructor and head of IT Department at Shahid Rabbani Kabul Education Uni-versity.

Please tell us about your education and accomplishments. I completed my bachelor’s degree in computer science at Kabul University when I had suc-cessfully passed Kankor Examination in 2001. Passing Kankor Examination and getting to Science Faculty, I could get to Computer Science Department due to having great scores when I had been the first position holder of my class in sec-ond semester. Including to Computer Science Department’s curriculum, we had a pleasure of studying CCNA 1, 2, 3, 4 and IT Essential 1, 2 courses led by Cisco Networking Academy.

I was selected as a lecturer at Kabul Education University, Department of Computer Science after a transparent competitive process led by Kabul Uni-versity’s officials. Finally, after seven years of serving as a lecturer and head of department, Ministry of Higher Educa-tion granted me a scholarship for pur-suing my Master’s degree. Doing my Master’s degree in Computer Engineer-ing at Ferdawsi University of Mashhad, I returned back to Kabul and continued my duty as a lecturer at Shahid Rabbani Kabul Education University. Moreover, I did some short-term courses in Holland, Turkey and India.

My educational accomplishments encompass a research article published with IEEE index, five educational ar-ticles published in Payam-e-Marefat Magazine, and two research treatises confirmed and published by Ministry of Higher Education which were for my ed-ucational promotion. Moreover, most of my educational accomplishments have been regarding Data Security, Smart Systems and Wireless Sensor Networks.

Please tell us about history of Com-puter Education and Information Technology Faculty, and what is the required score of Kankor Examination for this faculty? Computer Education and Information Technology Faculty has begun its activities as a department

A Passion for Learning and TeachingWebsite: http://www.star.edu.af Email: interstellarbulletin@gmail.com

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Add: Star Avenue, Sabiqa Stop, Dehburi, KabulA Branch Phone: +93 (0) 785 10 39 20 / +93 (0) 744 56 37 55

An interview with Qurban Ali Frugh, Lecturer, Cisco Instructor and head of IT Department at Shahid Rabbani Kabul Education University.

About the interviewer: Fakher Ahmad Amirzad is a current English teacher at Star’s A Branch.