Women’s education key to continuing social progress in Middle East, Harvard speakers say

Women’s empowerment through education will aid political and social progress in the Middle East, but the road toward a fair education is a long one full of barriers, speakers said on Tuesday at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

About 40 people gathered in the Belfer Building to hear about speakers’ personal efforts in aiding education throughout Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon.

Zeena Zakharia, a Gebran G. Tueni Human Rights Fellow at Harvard, reflected on her time spent at a Shiite school in Lebanon. Her school was one of the “younger” and “newer” educational movements in Lebanon because the Shiite never had a missionary sponsor like other religious sects did.

The school uses pedagogical tools such as “hot-seat” interviews where the teacher pulls out one student for inquiry to help her and other students think more subjectively and formulate opinions about gender, religion and politics, Zakharia said.

“[The teacher] says to them, ‘You are free to have different opinions,’” she said. “Even though we see teachers and students negotiating this discursive space, we, at the same time, see gender discourse.”

“Schooling makes them capable of change,” Zakharia said.

Zakharia, who spent time in 10 Lebanese schools, noted that this specific Shiite school is a progressive and rare type of educational system.

“I think that this particular school is remarkable, really remarkable,” she said. “We’re talking about a very disrupted school year, and yet [there are] these amazing lessons.”

Catherine Rielly, Board President of Rubia, Inc., spoke about her Afghani non-profit organization, which works at “mending Afghanistan stitch by stitch” and teaches women embroidery so they can become empowered by earning some money without sacrificing their traditional lifestyles.

“There are two million war widows who are illiterate and are struggling to survive in Afghanistan,” Rielly said. “For the first time, the women actually have money in their pocket, and they’re more respected in their community.”

“What we’re trying to do is give the women access to income, and in doing so, give them the opportunity to have more bargaining power within the household,” she said.

Social issues within Iraq prevent proper education, said UNICEF Communication Specialist Shoubo Rasheed Jalal, a Gebran G. Tueni Human Rights Fellow and Iraqi physician.

“This is still in terms of a process,” Jalal said. “A girl, for example, wanted to understand more, but the teacher would insult her because [the girl] would not understand.”

Many teachers in Iraq used to purposely fail children because of what family they were from, and this is one of the many things that has stunted the educational progress, Jalal said.

“It’s a gradual thing,” Rielly said. “We’re so far from kids actually talking openly about their sex roles and their social roles.”

Audience members found the speeches thought provoking and interesting.

“A lot I knew nothing about, and now I just have more questions, and it aroused my curiosity,” said Jane Spickett, a 63-year-old resident of Arlington who referred to herself as an independent scholar.

“One of the things I picked up on was the [Shiites] in Lebanon being the only unsponsored sect that didn’t have any missionary partner, and now I want to find out more about that,” she said.

“I thought it was extremely interesting that they went from the macro levels way down to the one particular school,” said Orla Kelly, a research assistant at the Harvard School of Public Health. “It just shows that working from the grassroots, from the ground up, is such an important way to reach educational goals.”