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16 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday November 19, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com Changing old ways of life in Afghanistan Continued from page 12 a generation raised with terror and no education are obstacles that remain -- along with continued terrorism. Fundamental to the human rights issues in Afghanistan however are the tribal laws that remain the way of life at the grassroots level despite an espousement of human rights at the national level. Armstrong, whose career has included 25 years of covering war, has been covering Afghanistan for 11 years. The woman who has worked for Homemakers, Chatelaine, Maclean's and Canadian Living and made a film about her work, saw her article, Veiled Threat, go from a powerful piece in Homemakers to a book. Now, Armstrong has released a sequel. This book is called Bitter Roots: Tender Shoots: The Uncertain Fate of Afghanistan's Women. It tracks the women's movement in Afghanistan. That's correct, the women's movement. In the face of international apathy and inequality at home, Afghan women are taking up their own cause -- despite the risks. They are standing up to obtain rights in the face of terrorism and more. "These women are so brave," said Armstrong -- herself a women who has sat in a desert compound with the Taliban and after being called an infidel and more -- "I thought he was going to talk me to death," said Armstrong -- squeezed in an interview with a Taliban governor, before beating a hasty retreat for the border as the Taliban had ordered. Women in Afghanistan are facing terrible odds, but are choosing to fight for their future. According to Armstrong, it has become a common punishment for women to be taken to a public place, and shot in the face in front of their children. Armstrong said she knows of a woman who faced that death. She knows another, the head of a news agency, who has been threatened with the same. Yet the women continue on their course. Last week, schoolgirls who dared not wear their burka had acid sprayed in their face by bandits while en route to school. Whether it's terrorism or tribal law, the obstacles to establishing a 21st century lifestyle in Afghanistan are formidable. Armstrong said a woman who disobeyed her mother-in-law was held down and doused with gasoline, then set alight. "It took her six days to die," said Armstrong who admitted that while she continually travels to the war-torn country to talk to the women, it's tough not to let it get personal. Over time, Armstrong has made friends and has tracked the women. Her new book outlines their activities and places it against the lifestyles in the country and the changing political landscape. "Bitter Roots, Tender Shoots is an accurate and impassioned portrayal of the lives of women and girls in Afghanistan in 2008 and it suggests they are the way forward," reads a release from book publisher Penguin Group (Canada). Afghanistan today is a contradiction in terms. Life there embraces religious piety, but encompasses brutality. Some live in mud huts, others ostentatious mansions. Shops display Hollywood-style mannequins with short hair and strapless gowns, yet women on the street wear burkas. Pop music competes with that from mosques. Popular soap operas were taken off the air, but people watch them on computers. Liquor is forbidden, yet restaurants serve wine. Afghanistan has a rich culture, yet there is violence in every home. Armstrong tips her hat to the women of the country who are trying to effect change against all odds. "It's the women who are the reformers," said Armstrong. Armstrong also can't say enough about women here at home, like those who founded Canadians in Support of Afghan Women (CSAW) in the wake of her article Veiled Threat. Over the years, CSAW has fundraised money to send children to school in Afghanistan. It pays teachers salaries, provides supplies and now, is replacing a tent school in Sheik Mistry (about 30 km from Jalalabad), which children have been attending -- through daily desert dust storms and biting wind, with a school building. It is led by Afghan educator Nazaneen Majeed who has been educating boys and girls in Afghanistan and continues undaunted. CSAW, with both the monetary and logistical help of a Calgary engineer and his family, began building a school in September and hopes to have it finished in December. This Sunday, Armstrong will discuss her new book at St. John's United Church, in a fundraiser to help CSAW meet its goal of raising $30,000 for the project. The man in the field with the tethered girl may find it easy to go along with life as it can exist in Afghanistan today, but others like Armstrong, CSAW and more, can not. The world may not be standing in Armstrong's shoes in that field to know what is taking place. However, Armstrong, as a veteran, award-winning author and journalist who has received the Order of Canada for her efforts, knows this is a story that needs to be told -- that the rest of the world needs to know what's happening in that field to that little girl. Once that story is told -- as Armstrong did in Veiled Threat and revisits again in Bitter Roots, Tender Shoots -- what happens is up to the rest of the world. If women in Oakville, busy with their lives, want to take time to help girls learn a different way, that's up to them -- and they are. If women in Afghanistan, tethered by tribal law and political opportunism, speak up, even in the face of death, it's up to them -- and they are. If many countries try to bring security and keep terrorists at bay in a primitive land while government and citizens gain a foothold and make progress in what has become a confused mass of contradictions, it's up to them -- and they are. Armstrong will speak from 2-4 p.m. at St. John's United Church, 262 Randall St. Tickets cost $25. For tickets call Daniela at 289-242-4135. To donate to CSAW's school-building project, send cheques made payable to Rights and Democracy, noting on the memo line CSAW/Building, Canadians in Support of Afghan Women, Hopedale Mall, 1515 Rebecca St., Suite 227, Oakville, ON L6L 5G8. For more information on CSAW and the school building project, visit www.canadianssupportafghanwomen.ca.