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Shakila

Former Assistant Program Director, 10,000 Women

Being part of this movement has made me feel more responsible for Afghanistan and its future. I didn't see any misery during the protest, just hope and life. It was inspiring!

In 2007, Shakila taught my husband, Bill, the Dari language while he was in Kabul. I first met her when she came to Texas in 2009. She’d been to a conference in New York City, and Bill and I flew her down to enjoy a visit and see another part of the US. It was fun to show her Austin and to see our town from her point of view.

Earlier that year, Shakila helped organize and participated in a women’s demonstration against certain repugnant articles of the Shia Personal Status Law (aka Shia Law, Marital Rape Law ) that had been signed by President Hamid Karzai in April.³

Shakila was the one who convinced me to return to Afghanistan in 2010. When I arrived, she introduced me to translators and many people of interest. I am deeply indebted to her.

Shakila was born in 1980 in a small village in Bamyan Province. Six years later, as Soviet forces attacked the area, her family evacuated to Arak, an Iranian provincial capital. Iran encouraged universal education at that time, and Shakila completed high school and a two-year nurse’s training program. Her family returned to Afghanistan in 2004, moving to Kabul for its work and educational opportunities. Shakila worked as a nurse at Bamyan Hospital and later as a translator for International Midwife Assistance (IMA). She rejoined her family in Kabul when that job ended and began working as an Assistant Program Manager for the 10,000 Women Business Training Program at the American University of Afghanistan. In the fall of 2011, she began her studies in business in the US.