The Afghan Ambassador to Germany, Professor Dr. A. Rahman Ashraf, smiles warmly at the group of four young Afghan civil society leaders. They smile back, timidly. "This is the best day in my life in the past eighteen 18 months since I became Ambassador to Germany!" he proclaims. The group now smiles with a more complex mixture of embarrassment at being in the spotlight and pride, obviously moved by his words. He continues: "When I was teaching at the university in Kabul, I was hoping that one day my students would go out and present Afghanistan to the world. And now you are doing just that."
The Ambassador's reaction was perhaps more personal than the reactions in some of the other meetings to which I accompanied the group, but it is hardly atypical. In their day in Berlin -- part of a week-long tour through Germany, Hungary, and Spain, from April 15-22 -- these four… more »
If you want to become a lawyer in Afghanistan, you enroll in a university and major in Law & Politics or Shari'a, either of which grants you an undergraduate degree and allows you to practice law. Therefore, a solid and comprehensive legal education can set the groundwork for a correspondingly flourishing and effective Afghan justice system. One month ago, I became the Program Manager for an innovative legal education grant that has been quietly making gains for Afghanistan's future lawyers with very little fanfare since 2004 by educating Afghan law professors and encouraging them to change the way they teach. This unassuming yet groundbreaking program, administered by the University of Washington in Seattle, and called the Afghanistan Legal Educators Support Program (LESPA), celebrated two recent events that speak volumes about the range of work the United States is doing… more »
Ralph Bunche, U.S. diplomat and the first African American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1950), once said: "If you want to get across an idea, wrap it up in a person."
I could not agree more, and we are doing just that through U.S. Embassy Kabul's Mission Speakers Program (MSP). The MSP recruits speakers from throughout the embassy by simply finding out about our colleague's experiences, and then building a relevant outreach event around their expertise for Afghan participants. For example, the first MSP activity connected a female diplomat who happened to be a former college basketball player with a group of high school girls participating in an embassy-funded sports and leadership program. Her presentation to the girls underscored the value of hard work, determination, and goal-planning, as she told the group: "Don't be afraid to fail and don't fear what others… more »
Harnessing the energy and talents of youth, "Teen Teach" is a unique public diplomacy program run by our embassy in Kabul that trains Afghan teenagers to teach English. It began last summer and reached more than a thousand young learners in Afghanistan during that time period.
"'Teen Teach' gives these bright, enthusiastic teenagers the opportunity to pass along their knowledge of English to younger children," Ambassador David Pearce says in a documentary that U.S. Embassy Kabul put together to spotlight the program. "The program not only provides these children with an education that stresses the rich cultural heritage of Afghanistan, but it also helps to open their eyes to the wider world, and -- in so doing… more »
My recent trip to Afghanistan was a great chance to reconnect with many Afghan counterparts from the year I spent there in 2008-2009 working with the Afghan Air Force to rebuild and modernize their force. At the top of my agenda was to meet with the commander of the Afghan Air Force, Major General Abdul Wahab Wardak to hear his perspective on the progress of the recently rebuilt and revitalized Afghan National Army Air Force. I was impressed to see a growing fleet of aircraft that are being operated by a dedicated and capable force of Afghan airmen assisted by a team of U.S. mentors and advisors.
The Afghan Air Force dates back to 1924 under the rule of King Amanullah Khan and went through several evolutions in subsequent decades before being reduced to near obscurity during the civil war and Taliban rule of the 1990s. As we began to rebuild Afghan National Security… more »
On March 21, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hosted a celebration for the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council at the Department of State, with special guest Mrs. Laura Bush, in appreciation for the work and ongoing dedication of the Council's members to support the women and girls of Afghanistan. Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmay Rassoul also participated, with other U.S. and foreign dignitaries.
Founded by U.S. President George W. Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in 2002, the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council connects the U.S. Government, the Afghan Government, the private sector, academia, and non-governmental organizations to identify needs and to develop and implement initiatives in support of Afghan women and girls. Since 2009, Secretary Clinton and the State Department continue the work of the Council, now housed at Georgetown University.… more »
Razor wire pierces the orange sky as we drive through Kabul's haze and rush hour traffic to the Afghan National Institute of Music (ANIM). For the second year in a row, ANIM is hosting famed Afghan and international musicians for its "Winter Music Academy," an opportunity for the students to work with master teachers. Tonight, the wide community of ANIM's supporters -- including representatives from the U.S. Embassy's Public Affairs Section, which funds both the winter academy and ongoing Access English micro-scholarships -- has the delight of hearing these masters in concert. In the front row are representatives from the World Bank, and after the first song -- Henri Duparc's "L'invitation au voyage," sung by Kabul-born artist Mashal Arman -- one whispers to another, "You are in Kabul, not Paris. Kabul! Can you believe it?"
On December 20, the U.S. Embassy Kabul's Public Affairs Section completed a 10-day outreach and engagement program with prominent Muslim-American businesswoman and magazine owner, Ms. Tayyibah Taylor, on the theme of entrepreneurship. During this period, the program reached nearly 500 Afghan men and women -- in face-to-face engagements with audiences that ranged from uneducated merchants and artisans, university students and emerging entrepreneurs, to sophisticated, urban businesswomen, civil society organizations, community leaders, and provincial council members.
Ms. Taylor traveled to four provinces in support of this program: Kabul; Kapisa in the north; Nangarhar in the east; and Kandahar in the south. Ms. Taylor's program underscores the State Department's objectives of expanding women's economic empowerment, particularly in South Central Asia, where Ambassador… more »
May 23: The State Department, through its office of the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), is pleased to announce $1.5 million in funding to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to support open governance and political participation in the Middle East and North Africa. more »
May 23: Today, Russia was invited to join the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) at a ceremony hosted by its parent body, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. ã more »
![Afghan civil society leaders -- Ms. Razia Arooje, who is a national program officer for the Kabul office of an international development organization; Ms. Freshta Karimi, who is the director of Da Qanoon Ghushtonky, a legal organization supporting women and children; Mr. Mohammad Sadiq Mohibi, who is an advisor to the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and the Disabled; and Dr. Mirwais Rahimzai, the country director for the Center for Human Services/University Research -- participate in a panel discussion in Berlin, Germany, April 2012. [State Department photo by John G. Self/ Public Domain]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0501_civil_society_afghanistan_m.jpg)
![Future law professor Parwiz Esmati from Albironi University, Afghanistan, poses in his judicial robes as he prepares to serve as a judge for the 2012 Jessup International Moot Court competition in Washington, D.C., March 2012. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0501_moot_court_afghanistan_m.jpg)
![The ANIM Youth Orchestra performs in Kabul, Afghanistan on October 27, 2011. [Embassy Kabul photo/ Public Domain]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0429_youth_orchestra_kabul_2_m.jpg)
![Students participate in an English language lesson as part of the Teen Teach program in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 2011. The image is from a documentary filmed by Afghan youths about the Teen Teach program, which is supported by the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan. [State Department image/ Public Domain]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0412_teen_teach_afghanistan_m.jpg)
![Afghan trainer Col. Din Mohammad, center, explains a helicopter to new cadre of Afghan pilots and air crews at the air force university in Kabul, Afghanistan, January 16, 2012. [AP File Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0326_afghan_air_force_m.jpg)
![Musicians perform at the Afghan National Institute of Music in Kabul, Afghanistan, January 2012. [U.S. Embassy photo/ Public Domain]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0118_kabul_music_m.jpg)
