(Editor’s note: Last names of students have been withheld from this article for the safety of the students.)
She thought it was a joke.
The morning phone call from Cal Poly social science professor Maliha Zulfacar told Afghan student Ulker that she was coming to the United States as part of a pilot Afghan Educational Outreach Project.
“I couldn’t believe that it would happen to me, that one day I would be coming to the United States to study,” Ulker said. “It was unbelievable.”
Ulker and Farida, both 23 years old and now Cal Poly agricultural business juniors, seized the opportunity to receive education outside of their country of Afghanistan.
“In my house it was everyone’s dream to go outside the country,” Farida said. “I always had wanted to go outside (of Afghanistan) and when I heard about this program I was excited, but I was an only child.”
Although apprehensive about leaving her mother behind, she found the strength to do it, with the support of her mother.
“My mom was very supportive and she told me to go outside and explore the world,” Farida said.
Ulker is from the city of Sheberghan in north Afghanistan; here it is not the norm for females to go out of the country for education, let alone earn a degree.
“I’m the only girl studying (and) actually, getting my bachelor (degree),” Ulker said.
Although her village is against education for females, her immediate family is very progressive.
“Education is high in my family and it’s really respected to be an educated woman and an educated man,” Ulker said.
But the ambition to be educated took a while to develop. It was not until a vacation to Kabul with Farida’s cousin that Ulker’s view of education changed.
“I looked at these girls and they were thinking highly and they were going to school,” Ulker said. “I planned then to transfer from north (Afghanistan) to south (Afghanistan) and complete my high school thinking I would go to Kabul University and thinking to be an engineering major.”
That all changed when Zulfacar met the two girls while auditing a class in Kabul.
Zulfacar, who is currently an Afghan ambassador to Germany, decided to start the Afghan Educational Outreach Project after discussing the possibility with Cal Poly President Warren Baker and Said Tayeb Jawad, the University of Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the United States.
The goal of the project is to educate the next generation of Afghan women and help build an intellectual future in Afghanistan.
From Kabul to San Luis Obispo
With help from U.S. Representative Lois Capps’ office, the U.S. State Department and U.S. Embassy in Pakistan, the students were able to travel from Afghanistan to the United States in December 2005.
They attended the California Coast Language Academy (CCLA) in San Luis Obispo for six months to learn English.
“Our English was very limited, since we spoke very little. There are still phrases that the young people use and the slang that they use that are confusing,” Ulker said, laughing. “People would say ‘Oh sick’ or ‘wicked’. We’d know the meaning but didn’t really know what they really mean.”
“Like a piece of cake,’” Farida added.
After their time at CCLA, the two attended Cuesta College’s transfer program and were admitted into the agricultural business program at Cal Poly and now reside with President Baker’s chief of staff Dan Howard-Greene and his wife Paula.
“It’s extremely beneficial for them to attend classes gaining added value to their education. It’s been terrifically positive,” Dan Howard-Greene said.
“The women in Afghanistan faced challenges under the Taliban and the emphasis of the program is the understanding that they take it back home and use (their education) in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.”
During their time with the Howard-Greene family, the girls have bridged close relationships with the family and refer to them as ‘mom’ and ‘dad.’
Ulker hopes that one day there will be peace in Afghanistan so that her host family can go there to meet her family.
The students celebrate Christmas with their host family and also celebrate the student’s own traditions such as their New Year, the eighth day and Eid ul-Fitr, the festival of fast breaking and the first day of spring on March 21.
“(Farida and I ) wear something new or something green,” Ulker said. “Spring is a green time for us so we need to have something new to start a new year and I walk on the grass outside just thinking my year will be lucky.”
Farida says this is significant because in Afghanistan winters are so barren that when grass grows it’s a sign of a joyous occasion.
“In the new year, people will go walk on the grass thinking the new year starts with green (since) it’s more happiness,” Farida said. “Green is Islam’s color.”
The two girls are known for inviting friends over and cooking meals to share their culture, especially if they have never had Afghan food.
“I love to cook dough food. Anything with a dough. Like dumplings,” Ulker said. “Sometimes I try to cook Indian and Thai food.”
The women said other students are often surprised to discover they are from Afghanistan.
Ulker, with fair skin, freckles, and light brown hair, and Farida with dark skin and black hair are sometimes mistaken as other nationalities.
“Most of the time they think I’m Russian or from Europe. My own country thinks I’m a foreigner,” Ulker said, explaining that just like America, Afghanistan is a melting pot of all different people with many different faces.
Farida is many times mistaken for being Indian and sometimes students think that the women do not know much about American culture.
“It’s not like we don’t know anything about this world. The problem is that this world don’t know much about us,” Ulker said.
But neither girls are offended. They want others to know more about their country and its people beyond others’ preconceived impressions of Afghanistan from what they hear, see and read in the news.
“They see all the bad pictures … all they see is dead people,” Ulker said. “The first thing is I want to make clear is Afghan people don’t just have one face. They have many faces. Different tribes and different looks. It does not mean that all Afghans are all dark and dark-haired. I’m Afghan and I’m proud.”
Part two of this series will be published in the May 21 edition of the Mustang Daily.