Sara Wahedi & Parasto Hakim: AFGHANISTAN – LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

Tobias Matern in conversation with Sara Wahedi and Parasto Hakim





AFGHANISTAN – LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS


 


The Taliban took power in Afghanistan in the summer of 2021.
Their agenda: to re-establish the „era of darkness“ for Afghan
women. Under the regime, women are not allowed to move freely,
face harsh work restrictions and girls may offically attend
schools only until 6th grade.


But there is hope: Afghan millennials who are advovating for
change, even from exile.





Sara Wahedi, 30 years old, is an Afghan-Canadian
tech-entrepeneur and human rights activists. She was was named
one of „Time Magazine’s Next Generation Leaders“ and was also on
the Forbes Magazine entrepeneur list „30 under 30“. Ms. Wahedi
developed the „Ehtesab“ app in Afghansitan which helps users to
navigate through gunfire, roadblocks, explosions and other
security risks. She is the Chief Executive Officer of Civaam, a
civic-tech startup which develops technological solutions for
crisis-affected regions. Born in Kabul in 1995, her family moved
to Canada in 2005. In 2017, Ms. Wahedi returned to Kabul 
and stayed until the Taliban takeover in August 2021. She holds a
degree from Columbia University in New York City and attends
Oxford University in London.  Her aim is to get “Afghan
women and girls’ voices out at the forefront of public
conversations”. And she firmly believes that tech can bring
change to people who are deprieved from their rights.





Parasto Hakim, 27 years old, was born in
Pakistan in a refugee center.  Her Family returned to
Afghanistan when she was six months old. She grew up during the
first Taliban regime (1996-2001).
Ms. Hakim attended school and university in Kabul and worked in
the Afghan government as policy advisor on education and for
international organizations as communication coordinator.
After the Taliban re-gained power in 2021, she started the
Srak-NGO. Srak translates from Pashto as „first light in the
morning“. The initiative focuses on empowering women and girls
through education, skill-building programs, online education, and
literacy opportunities.
Ms Hakim´s  NGO operates 15 underground schools in
Afghanistan and has benefited over 2000 individuals. She was
forced to leave Afghanistan after receiving threats in 2023. She
is a member of the „Vienna Process for a Democratic Afghanistan“
where opposition groups work on a plan for the the future of the
country. In recognition of her efforts, Ms. Hakim was nominated
for the Sakharov Prize in 2023.





Tobias Matern, born in 1978, is head of
international politics at the Süddeutsche Zeitung in Munich. He
studied political science in Berlin and attended the American
University School of Journalism in Washington D.C. on a Fulbright
scholarship. Matern has been with SZ since 2004. He was a
correspondent for South and Southeast Asia based in Delhi and
Bangkok during the height of the war in Afghanistan. He has
interviewed and portrayed comedians, ministers, presidents,
writers and psychotherapists in South Asia. He curated an
exhibition on Afghanistan for the ‘Fünf Kontinente’ museum in
Munich and published the book ‘Augenblick Afghanistan – Angst und
Sehnsucht in einem versehrten Land’.