{"id":25385,"date":"2010-04-21T11:51:58","date_gmt":"2010-04-21T15:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/home.bates.edu\/?p=25385"},"modified":"2018-08-30T18:18:59","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T22:18:59","slug":"folks-back-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2010\/04\/21\/folks-back-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Folks Back Home"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"quadangles-spring2010-golden-mustafa-2891\"<\/a>

Mustafa Basij-Rasikh \u201912 poses with Jared Golden \u201911. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

A Kabul resident and a Marine veteran agree that education is key for Afghanistan \u2014 and for Americans who want to help<\/h3>\n

By Doug Hubley<\/em><\/p>\n

Back home in Afghanistan last summer, Mustafa Basij-Rasikh \u201912 found that \u201cdemocracy\u201d means different things to different people.<\/p>\n

Not always good things.<\/p>\n

After decades of having democracy defined for them by such champions of the concept as the Soviets and the Taliban, many Afghans harbor \u201cthis preconceived notion, orally passed from generation to generation, that democracy is not good,\u201d says Basij-Rasikh, who worked for an organization providing civic education programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople hold on to that. And that just comes back to lack of education.\u201d<\/p>\n

But similarly, Basij-Rasikh and his good friend, Jared Golden \u201911, a Marine veteran who served in Afghanistan, also see how the American perception of Afghanistan is defined more by what we don\u2019t know than what we do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s missing from the equation is an effort to really understand Afghans and listen to them,\u201d says Golden. \u201cWe love the quick fix and the quick answer. And it\u2019s not that simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

“The only factor that can overcome adversity in a country is education.\u201d<\/p>\n

The College\u2019s first Afghan student since at least 1984, Basij-Rasikh comes from a country where more than 70 percent of the population is illiterate. Yet this Kabul resident is a scion of what he terms \u201can unusual liberal family\u201d that\u2019s not only willing, as many Afghans are, but able to give its children good educations.<\/p>\n

Three sisters are also studying in the United States. \u201cMy upbringing always reinforced this notion that the only factor that can overcome adversity in a country is education,\u201d says Mustafa, a 21-year-old politics major. \u201cI have a dream that my generation will be the generation who will solve the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n

His dream is all the more moving because Basij-Rasikh and other Afghan students in the U.S. are supported by the Peter M. Goodrich Memorial Foundation, founded by Sally and Don Goodrich, whose son Peter \u201989 died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. And for all concerned, Mustafa\u2019s presence at Bates seems to personify Peter\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n

Golden, meanwhile, grew up in Leeds, a town near Bates, but applied here only after his Marine Corps service, which took him to Afghanistan in 2004 and Iraq in 2005\u201306. An infantryman, he spent much of his Afghanistan tour in Kunar province, a hotbed of insurgent activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cFour years in the Marines was enough to make me realize the importance of education, and I just love it,\u201d says the 27-year-old Golden. Coming from homes 6,500 miles apart, the Afghan student and the American student of Afghanistan have arrived at much the same place in their thinking about education\u2019s role in rebuilding that country. But for a deeply conservative nation, after three decades of war, education is by no means a given.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are more familiar with the gun than the pen,\u201d says Basij-Rasikh. \u201cSome people are making a life of this war because they are good at that. And if you are good at that you\u2019re not going to give it away unless somebody gives you an alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n

The alternative of universal education could provide ethnically diverse, tribally oriented Afghanistan with common principles to rally around, says Don Goodrich. Especially in rural areas, the Taliban have exploited people\u2019s piety by imposing a politicized interpretation of Islam. With universal education, says Basij-Rasikh, \u201cpeople who manipulate Islam would no longer be effective, because everybody could read, everybody could write, everybody could think critically and they would question them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately education is everything in Afghanistan,\u201d agrees Golden. \u201cThat\u2019s likely to change the situation in Afghanistan in the long run much more than war can.\u201d He adds, \u201cTheir younger generation now is a big sponge \u2014 they just want to suck up education, they love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here at Bates, Basij-Rasikh and Golden have also found some teachable moments as they\u2019ve encountered stereotyped beliefs about both Afghans and the Americans involved in their country. Golden rejects such stereotyping. To him, \u201call people should be understood and approached as individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGet as many different perspectives as possible. Don\u2019t just jump on a bandwagon or make assumptions.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds, \u201cI\u2019m really always trying to paint the picture from both angles. I can see Afghans who do appreciate our being there, who feel better that the Taliban no longer runs their area or who love the fact that their child is going to school. And I can also see that that same family has lost five or six family members to U.S. air support.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds that at Bates, \u201csome people, I\u2019m happy to say, don\u2019t really associate me with my military experience anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drawn together by their common ties to Afghanistan, Golden and Basij-Rasikh have much else in common. Among other things, Golden jokes, \u201cwe like food and are both good at spending money.\u201d More seriously, \u201cwe are both big thinkers and share similarly ambitious goals and dreams. And I believe we share similar values and ethics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Summer 2009 found them both contributing to education in Afghanistan, Basij-Rasikh with the NGO Counterpart International, and Golden in Kabul with the School of Leadership, Afghanistan, or SOLA (Pashto for \u201cpeace\u201d), which receives support from the Goodrich Foundation. Both hope to return this summer: Golden to work for a shipping company and Basij-Rasikh to pilot a program offering occupational support to people disabled by landmines.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t tell people what\u2019s necessarily right or wrong in Afghanistan,\u201d Golden says. \u201cYou have to do your research and get as many different perspectives as possible. Don\u2019t just jump on a bandwagon or make assumptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to go there and find ways to make a small difference.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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