Inside the difficult quest to create Afghanistan’s first-ever women’s national swim teamAmid the bombings, suicide attacks and social unrest in Afghanistan, there is man with a vision: to create the country’s first-ever... Page 4

Humanity abandoned KabulI am among defenseless people being killedVictims of ignorance and brutalityMy homeland is the graveyard of many ruthlessly killed innocentsEach of them were... Page 3

Saturday, March 25, 2017 Vol. 2, No. 69

2. Personal Essays3. Poetry4-5. News

6. Book Reviews7. Literary8. Interview

See Inside Quote of the Week“Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away."

- Abraham Lincoln

Star Educational Society Weekly

Interstellar (adjective): situated or occurring between the stars; conducted, or existing between two or more stars

Trump federal budget 2018: Massive cuts... Page 5

The Vampires of Kabul“Once upon a time, there was an exqui-site castle on a high, green mountain. All the people of the kingdom were happy and safe. They had smiles on their lips and hope in their hearts. This kingdom had a benevolent princess who was innocent and pretty. She was called Frozan.” ... Page 2

And the mountains echoed – A book reviewKhaled Hosseini’s And the mountains echoed was different from Hosseini’s previous two books. This was more honest and realistic, and maybe that is why I liked it so much. The book is comprised of different stories but the characters are all interconnected. After reading the first chapter, I was practi-cally left in awe.... Page 6

It seemed that many of the Afghans in Bishkek were trapped in our own private despair. Farkhonda’s blood spread like a huge stain on the whole country and ev-erybody associated with it. We felt hope-less, helpless, and aggrieved. Our Afghan identity had been hijacked once again by people who represented a part of society that was contrary to what every one of us believed in. We had already faced experi-ences of discrimination and stereotyping in Bishkek from people who assumed all Afghans were terrorists. It was easier to say we were Chinese, Indian, Mongolian or any other ethnicity than to face the suspicion or fear that being Afghan could provoke. But now the whole world had another despicable image of Afghanistan to add to their distorted views of us.

We were unable to shake the dirty, dis-gusting feelings that were the residue of witnessing something so vile and vicious. As the fog began to lift from our minds, Aalam Farhad suggested that we plan a candlelight vigil. Several members of the Afghan community in Bishkek became busy writing poems, preparing speeches, making signs, securing permits for a pub-

lic demonstration, promoting the event, and educating non-Afghans about what had happened. Escaping from our private despair and working on something com-munally was like a balm for our wounds. We had a productive way to process our grief and a platform to share our thoughts and feelings.

I poured my grief into a poem, drench-ing myself in the feelings and images of the past few days. At dusk, we gathered in a courtyard in front of AUCA and formed a circle around Farkhonda’s photo placed on a platform on the ground. We became the wall of a human chain that Farkhonda should have had to protect her at Shah-do-Shamshira Mosque three days earlier – Afghans, Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, Russians, In-dians and Americans joined in solidar-ity to mourn the loss of Farkhonda and the loss of morality in a deeply wounded country. We held signs that said, Justice for Farkhonda, Who are we to judge?, We are Farkhonda, and We want justice. By turn, we spoke to the crowd and shared the words that weighed in our hearts.

I was very emotional and highly moved while reading my poem, reliv-

ing the horrific incident as if I was there. With a lump in my throat and a pound-ing heart, I felt the agony of every stone, kick, and punch hitting Farkhonda’s body. The vision lingered in my mind. Darkness descended and one-by-one we lit our candles and placed them on the ground around Farkhonda’s image. The air felt heavy and people were somber and qui-et. We paused for a moment of silence and I felt broken and helpless. Standing in silence together with my compatri-ots, the graphic images and words of my poem echoed in my mind and made me wish that we could travel back in time and stand against her brutal beating and burning.

Anyone with a conscience will melt in pain and tears when recalling Fark-honda’s tragic final hours. In spite of the pain, we must remember – today, tomor-row, every spring. We must work hard to remove the stains that spoil our soil and fight for a rebirth of morality and sensi-bility. We must stand together against the deceiving silence that will make us forget what happened to Farkhonda. We must not be silent. We must not forget.

March 19th of 2015 was a dark day for Afghanistan and a dark day for Afghans around the world. I was in the final months of my

master’s studies at the American Univer-sity of Central Asia (AUCA) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. There was a significant pop-ulation of Afghan students at AUCA and we were all numbed and shaken by the news of Farkhonda’s brutal murder. The videos and images that flooded Facebook and the news were too graphic to com-prehend. It was unfathomable that my countrymen could commit such heinous acts against a young woman and be so de-praved.

Reflections on the day Farkhonda died

A message from Ali Reza Yasa, Chairman and Founder of Star Educational Society

March 25th, 2017

Vol.2, No. 69 Personal Essays

Page 2

break under her skin and her tongue fails to say “STOP.” Her heart is bleeding and death finally relieves Farkhunda from the torture of her predators. Their shame is our shame. Farkhunda’s pain is our pain. The blood spilling over her face is the blood of our nation…. it’s the blood that spills on the pages of the Quran. It’s now for us to stand up in a chain of a human wall and protect ourselves from the de-ceiving silence – a silence that will make us forget what happened to Farkhunda. You and I share a common soul of human spirit which is under attack. Our silence is surrender. We must not be silent. We must not forget.

same? Whatever it may be, it’s a defeat of Afghan intellectualism, an open wound to Afghan identity and has descended upon the country like a choking fog.

This incident happened in the after-noon of Thursday close to Shah-e Doh Shamshira Mosque (Mosque of the King of Two-swords) a king who brought re-ligion to Afghanistan by killing the poor people with two swords. From that time on, the message of religion in Afghanistan has been stained by violence and extrem-ism. Whether the swords penetrate the heart of an innocent girl or break to piec-es the ancient statues of Bamyan, reli-gious extremism has brought Afghanistan to the brink of civil war.

Afghanistan has become a country of self-opposition, self-contradiction and self-torture. Farkhunda was not a Dutch cartoonist, thousands of miles away, pub-licly ridiculing the prophet’s polygamy. She was a poor girl who was cursed to be born in a country, culture and religion that forced her to succumb to the violent rush of dominating men under the pre-text of honor.

Men in Afghanistan often claim great pride in their honor, respect for wom-en, and protection of land and namus (virtue). Farkhunda, a young, innocent woman was beaten, stoned, burned and thrown in the river by hungry dogs who

Kabul has become the scene of a nightmarish jungle where the wild ani-mals walk on two legs, wear football jer-seys, dress shirts and hoodies and attack innocent people without any provoca-tion. These wolves wrongly accused Fark-hunda, a 27-year-old woman, of moral corruption and blasphemy and appointed themselves judge, jury and executioners when they beat Farkhunda to death and burned her corpse over the false accusa-tions of burning some pages of a Quran.

Was the attack an organized message to people of other faiths? Did Farkhunda become a living effigy in response to the cartoonist in the west? If Farkhunda was a man, would the result have been the

wanted to feast over a poor and crippled little deer in the midst of the jungle of Ka-bul. There’s a cloud of terror, darkness, smoke and absolute collapse. Who is re-sponsible for this? Where is the honor? Where is the men’s respect for women? Where is Islam’s sense of humanity when the self-proclaimed protectors of the Quran massacre a defenseless, poor woman? What can stop the poison of ex-tremism and the vulnerability of women and others in Afghan society?

Upon witnessing the scene, if a wise man burns himself alive he is not to be blamed. Such is the depth of the tragedy. The skin freezes over her bones, the bones

“Once upon a time, there was an ex-quisite castle on a high, green mountain. All the people of the kingdom were happy and safe. They had smiles on their lips and hope in their hearts. This kingdom had a benevolent princess who was inno-cent and pretty. She was called Frozan.”

This was the beginning of each story my mother told me when I was child. In her stories, there was not a single bad person. Everybody was kind, gentle and soft-hearted. Because of her stories, I had an optimistic heart. I believed in the goodness of people. By the time I grew up, I realized that most of her stories were not true – but maybe they reflected her life and beliefs. In fact, I went through life believing, as she did, that there was very little evil in this world and that good-ness and truth were always more power-ful. Until one dark and vile day.

It was a mild winter day, because it was close to spring. I was at home with my family when we first saw the video

What has happened since the bru-tal murder of Farkhonda? That ques-tion plagues my mind and the minds of many other Afghans inside and outside the country. Approximately two years have passed since Farkhonda’s death. Not only was she brutally murdered but her family members were forced to leave Afghanistan and settle in a foreign coun-try. In the last two years everything has been ignored. Nobody knows about her slaughterers. Where are they? What is going on with them?

I imagined Farkhonda’s death would inspire an enormous revolution for jus-tice and an end to violence against wom-en. I never imagined that our conscienc-es would fall asleep after this incident. I never thought this tragedy would only be a rallying cry on Facebook, the media, and the radio... that in the aftermath of her senseless murder we would be left only with images posted on Facebook, some short paragraphs and memories of protests which yielded nothing. Her murder should have resulted in a huge, ongoing revolution to fight for and pro-tect women's rights. I never thought that honesty and justice would be erased, like in this incident, from a country where 99% of its population are Muslims. I nev-er believed that the judgment of Afghan people could pioneer cruelty, inequality and become a symbol of discrimination.

One day after her death, the mul-lah of Shah-Do Shamshira Mosque con-demned Farkhonda’s murder and cursed Farkhonda’s slaughterers. He shared his painful sorrows with her family. He also pressed for the government to capture and immediately punish her slaughter-ers who came from different parts of so-ciety which included soldiers, clergy, the young, and the old. Most Afghan people were hopeful that dishonesty and cruelty would be removed permanently and re-placed with humanity and honesty, but unfortunately their wishes did not come true and instead, they were left hopeless.

If social media and digital images

footage on the TV. “KILL HER! KILL HER!” These disturbing and loathsome

words were being repeated by many voices.

I looked closer at the TV to un-derstand what was going on. It was so crowded at the Shah Do Shamshira shrine and some men were beating an angel to death. A poor and woeful angel hunted by a group of cruel, grim people. No, no they were not human. They were vampires. Vampires wearing the masks of humans. But when they learned of the angel’s existence and her so-called crimes, they threw off their masks and started biting her and drinking her blood.

I can’t write about the savage things the vampires did. They had long teeth and ghostlike faces. Their eyes were red and fingernails as sharp as knives. She begged for her life to their deaf ears. She was shouting and crying, and each of her tears dropped like pearls. Hanging from the neck of her mangled body was a deli-cate necklace with the name Farkhun-da written on it. Her white wings were soaked with blood and covered with dust. The sky turned red and dripped with sor-row.

I was such a pitiful girl sitting in my comfortable home in front of the TV. I was soaked in tears, but I was not able to help her. People were laughing as if it were just some cruel game. They cut both of her wings and drank all of her blood, still they were not satisfied. Their final display of inhumanity was to throw her body onto the river bank and burn her. They left her burned body where it lay, put on their human masks and returned to their normal daily lives… to their mothers, sisters, wives and daughters. They were never punished and there will never be justice.

Now I trust no one. Everyone looks like a mask-wearing vampire to me. Sometimes I feel that I am one of them too, because I could not save her. I wish I could go back to protect and defend her. I’m sorry, Farkhunda.

of this event did not exist, the heinous torture and murder of Farkhonda would have been ignored. The minds of Afghan citizens would have been replete with unanswered questions such as ‘How did Farkhonda’s death happen?’

I am really ashamed of a country full of mosques, holy places and people praying to Allah whose so-called wor-shippers can attack and kill an innocent, pious girl like Farkhonda. Every year more than 25 million Muslims make pilgrimages to Mecca and waste their wealth to be cleansed of their sins and renew their faith. It appalls me that Af-ghans and others who are guilty of mur-der, kidnapping, harassment and other sins believe they can go to Mecca and re-store their innocence. If we are true fol-lowers of Allah and pray to him honestly, believing in his appointment without any affectation, and trusting that he is closer to us than the vein in our necks... then why has Farkhonda’s brutal murder been forgotten?

Farkhunda: a helpless deer

The Vampires of Kabul Why has Farkhonda’s brutal murder been forgotten?

About the author: Ali Reza Yasa is the chairman and founder of Star Educa-tional Society. He earned a BA in sociol-ogy from Kateb University and an MA in Central Asian Studies from the American University of Central Asia.

About the author: Frozan Shahnoori is a Star alumna. She was a student of creative writing and teacher training courses. She loves to write short stories about her peo-ple in her spare time. She wants to become a successful businesswoman in the future.

About the author: Mohammad Zaki Zaki is a Star alumnus and former in-structor at Star's Daikondi branch. He recently graduated from the Geoscience Faculty of Kabul University.

Vol.2, No. 69Poetry

Page 3March 25th, 2017

I wish I didn’t have this on my backWritten by: Madinah, a first-generation Afghan-American living in Los Angeles.Republished from: http://www.burqasandbeer.com/i-wish-i-didnt-have-this-on-my-back/

My back is breakingI carry the honor of my ancestors like a boulder on my back.My back is breakingBecause if I love too much tonight, if I drink too much tomorrow, if I care too little todayWhat will my future children think of me, andWhat will their friends make of their mother, andWill they be ridiculed for being the child of a wretched woman orWill my actions even really affect them, andWhy do I care if my uncle in Kabul judges me orWhy is my spine curving like a slope, aSlippery slope that if I go down I might just ruin the legacy of my great grandfatherOr I may give room for people to slander our family name, andI am so so so tired of carrying the honor of my tribe on my backI want to throw away this label “woman” and run away because sometimesI am not feminine or coy or modest and most times I amLoud and obnoxious and I say too much and act like I care too little, andThat’s not what my Bibi would have wanted andI wish I didn’t have this on my backI wish I didn’t have this on my backI wish I didn’t have this on my back.

I die every day, why am I still alive?

By: Florence FaqiryarRepublished from: http://www.freewomenwriters.org/violence-against-afghan-women/

This poem is for the thousands of Afghan women living with abuse, rape and violence. You are not alone.

My brother burns me.My father kills me.

My mother hates me.My husband beats me.

I die every day,Why am I still alive?

My people blame me.My culture chokes me.

My “religion” stones me.My society limits me.

I die every day,Why am I still alive?

My countryman throws acid on my face.My police rapes me.

My family beheads me.My fate is a brutal death.

I die every day,Why am I still alive?

My nationality deprives me.My gender lags me behind.

My God ignores me.The world watches me.

I die every day,Why am I still alive?

I am among defenseless people being killedVictims of ignorance and brutalityMy homeland is the graveyard of many ruthlessly killed innocents

Each of them were killed in their citiesWhere they became the breaking news in developed countriesBut intolerably sad news for me

Ignorance became the dire enemy of Farkhunda - a pious, innocent girlThe girl attacked for defending the truthThey stole her modesty and snatched her veil

Murdered by ignorance and inhumanityTorched with flames of hatred and crueltyLying in a pool of her own blood While no one dared to comfort or protect herHumanity abandoned Kabul on this dayWhen hostility pumped through the hearts of menAnd sympathy deserted any would-be rescuersIgnorance won as we were paralyzed with grief

Where is humanity with all its talk of peace?Ignorance blinds them, while everyone stands idly byIgnorance is not a disability preventing common senseIgnorance killed Farkhonda and left humanity to hang

Humanity abandoned Kabul

About the author: Reza Salehi is a Star alumnus and current member of Star’s Teacher Training class. He received his bachelor’s degree in Geology and Mines from Kabul Polytechnic University

Page 4 March 25th, 2017

Vol.2, No. 69 News

During a joined operation by the Afghanistan National Defense Security Forces, sixty-six ISIS and Taliban insurgents were killed.

Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced that in that operation, which had been held to crack down on the insurgents in Nangarhar, Laghman, Kapisa, Pakteya, Urozgan, Kandahar, Farah, Herat, Takhar, Baghlan, Kunduz, and Helamand provinces, thirty- nine members of Taliban group and eighteen ISIS members had been killed.

According to MoD assertion, the insur-gents were killed in Achin district of Nangarhar province. Similarly, as the result of an operation in Alishang district of Lahman Province, eighteen Tali-ban members were killed and seven were wounded. Besides, in central Baghlan district, seven insurgents including Muhebullah, a commander Taliban group, were killed and 12 had been wounded.

Meanwhile, in the west of Farahrud Bazar, 16 insurgents were killed and wounded. Moreover, it is asserted that in Darqad district of Takhar prov-ince 8 insurgents were killed and 7 others including Rahmuddin, one of the local commanders of Dar-qad district, were wounded.

Officials from Ministry of Public Health said that the suicide at-tackers had attacked Sardar Daud Khan Hospital and during their clash with security forces, three people were killed and 54 others were wounded.

12 of the wounded people have been transferred to Emergency Hospital, while others have been transferred to different hospitals.

Sediq Sediqi, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said, "After the attack of attackers, special forces arrived and began to suppress terrorists."

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack on Sardar Daud Khan Hospital.

President Ashraf Ghani reprehended the attack saying, "The at-tack on the hospital is an attack on all the people of Afghanistan."

This morning, five attackers have attacked on Sardar Daud Khan Hospital building and the battle continues.

First the attackers deto-nated the explosive in front of the hospital and then four other suicide attackers en-tered the hospital.

Sardar Dawood Hospital bears responsibility to treat the wounded soldiers for the security forces.

Mullah Hebatullah Akhon-dzada, leader of Taliban, asked his adherents that everyone should plant either fruitful trees or unfruitful trees for beauty of the earth. In official statements of Taliban leader, there was written that planting trees by Muslims was welfare because it could be beneficial to humans, animals and even birds.

The leader of Taliban nu-merates planting trees from right doings and groovy char-ity and states: “We are asking militants and inward nations to plant fruitful and unfruitful trees for greenery of environ-ment.” This request of Taliban is unprecedented.

Sediq Sediqi, spokesman of Interior Affairs Ministry, re-sponded this request of Taliban leader to stop setting bombs.

He wrote on his Twitter that they should stop setting bombs on roadside which causes inno-cents deaths. The leader of Tali-ban asked people for planting trees when they were accused of burning Shamali’s arbors during 90 decade.

In other report, officials from Kondoz said that Mullah Abdul Salam, leader of Tali-ban in Kondoz, was killed. Shir Aziz Kamwal, one of officials of Kondoz province, stated that Mullah Abdul Salam had been killed by armed forces of Kon-doz. This Taliban leader was leading hot wars of Kondoz. Be-fore some reports were trans-pired the assassination of this officer of Taliban but Taliban were refusing it consistently; however, lately Taliban have not reacted yet.

Amid the bombings, suicide attacks and social unrest in Afghanistan, there is man with a vision: to create the country’s first-ever women’s national swim team. His quest to inspire hope and create op-portunity for young women in a country plagued by war is unprecedented. It’s also life threatening.

When Sayed Ihsan Taheri, presi-dent of the Afghanistan National Swim-ming Federation (ANSF), decided to start a women’s national swim team to join the men’s team that has been in ex-istence since 2004, the majority of initial response was negative, to say the least. “[People] threatened killing me, kidnap-ping me, they said you are not Muslim,” Ihsan, a civil activist who’s also involved in other Afghan and UN-supported agen-cies, told Excelle Sports. “When you think of swimming and you think of women in the context of Afghanistan, women and swimming, that’s totally two different is-sues among the rural people living in Af-ghanistan.”

In some areas of Afghanistan, young women are not allowed to go to school, let alone participate in sports, due to long-held cultural and religious mores. But Ihsan believes the country can over-come conservative tradition and points to other Islamic countries, like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Qatar, United Emirates and Indonesia, all of which have women’s national swim teams competing at the global stage.

“The first issue is to change the so-ciety and to have places for women to go swim,” Ihsan said. “We should work hard for the changing of society to have the proper meaning of the words of our re-ligious instruction and our valued tradi-tion, that we still respect it and that it is still our culture.”

The team, which launched a fun-draising campaign earlier this month through the U.S.-based platform Dream-fuel, doesn’t exist yet. First, Ihsan knows he needs money—at least $32,500 U.S.—to buy equipment, reserve pool time and arrange for travel to events. In the mean-time, though, he’s started meeting with

cal climate also pose safety issues for fe-male swimmers, Ihsan adds. “In Afghani-stan, we need to have separate times for the women and the men to swim because of security reasons,” he said. “You know the enemies of our country are targeting everyone and we are threatened a lot at the moment by those enemies that we are campaigning for women and campaign-ing for swimming.”

While Afghanistan has never had a fe-male athlete compete in swimming at the Olympic Games, both Saboori and Ihsan are hopeful that will change soon. “We are hopeful that there will be at least two men and one woman attending the swimming competition in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games,” Ihsan said.

Saboori hopes that she will be one of those Afghan athletes to compete at the 2020 Games. She says she also dreams of swimming professionally overseas.

“[I want to] join a professional swim team in Western countries, as they have the professional facilities and I can learn

Afghan women interested in swimming—women like Helena Saboori, who’s been swimming and dreaming of competing from her hometown of Kabul for years. Ihsan recently appointed Saboori, 28, as head of the women’s team effort.

“I can be a role model for interested Afghan women and encourage them to take part in development of their society as men do, which is definitely a step for-ward in gender equality and developing a positive culture in the community,” Sab-oori told Excelle Sports.

Saboori, who also works on docu-mentary films about social issues that af-fect her country, says Afghani patriarchal views about women are the main chal-lenge in creating a women’s team.

“The only way to eliminate this prob-lem is to change people’s mentality, es-pecially men’s view about women, and it will cause a positive impact on women’s activities in society,” she said. “It is a posi-tive change in gender equality.”

Terrorist organizations and the politi-

many things from them,” she said. In the interim, though, Afghanistan

needs its own facilities—and a women’s team to swim in them. To that end, Ih-san has turned his attention to raising the money he needs to build a team. Last year, while searching online for organiza-tions that could potentially help support his mission, he discovered Dreamfuel, which helps to raise funds specifically for athletes and sports team. This January, Ihsan contacted Dreamfuel founder Em-ily White, a former Division 1 swimmer from Northeastern University. The oppor-tunity struck White both professionally and personally.

“I can’t even imagine being one of the best athletes in the country [like Saboori] and a national team literally not existing,” White told Excelle Sports. “As Ihsan points out, Afghanistan is modernizing. We all know the impact sports can have on girls and communities. This is a chance to be-come a part of history that will affect gen-erations to come.”

Translator: Amir BabaieSource: Hasht-e-Subh

Translated by: Tamanna AxhirSource: Hasht-e-Subh

Translated by: Zuhal BayatSource: Etillat-e-Roz

66 ISIS, Taliban Members Killed

Hospital Attack leaves 3 killed and 54 injured

Taliban Leader’s Strange Message: Plant Trees for Beauty of Land

Inside the difficult quest to create Afghanistan’s first-ever women’s national swim team

By Kim VandenbergRepublished from: http://www.excellesports.com/news/afghanistans-first-womens-swim-team/

Page 5

Vol.2, No. 69News

March 25th, 2017

roughly $3 billion for targeted projects related to affordable housing, commu-nity development and homelessness pro-grams, among other things.The budget was stuffed with other cuts and reductions. It calls for privatizing the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traf-fic control function, cutting all funding for long-distance Amtrak train services and eliminating EPA funding for the restora-tion of Chesapeake Bay. Job training pro-grams would also be cut, pushing more responsibility for this onto the states and employers.Many Republicans have criticized these programs in the past as wasteful and inef-fective, but supporters have said the pro-grams are vital for communities in need.The proposed budget extensively tar-gets Obama programs and investments focused on climate change, seeking to eliminate payments to the United Na-tions’ Green Climate Fund — one key component of the U.S. commitment to the Paris climate agreement — and to slash research funding for climate, ocean and earth science programs at agencies such as NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. At the same time, clean-energy research, heavily privileged by the Obama administration, would suffer greatly under the budget with the elimination of the ¬ARPA-E pro-gram (Advanced Research Projects Agen-cy-Energy) at the Energy Department and an unspecified cut to the agency’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable En-ergy.“I think one of the reasons they’re propos-ing them [big spending cuts] is that they know they won’t ever get through Con-gress,” said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). “They know they’d be a disaster for their own party if they did. It makes for a great talking point. It actually fits on a tweet.”There were several areas in which Trump proposed increasing spending. He pro-posed, for example, $168 million for char-ter school programs and $250 million for a new private-school choice program, which would probably provide tuition as-sistance for families who opt to send their children to private schools.The biggest increase in spending would be directed at the Pentagon, but the bud-get plan does not make clear where the new $54 billion would go. The budget plan would boost funding for the Army, Navy,

President Trump on Thursday will unveil a budget plan that calls for a sharp in-crease in military spending and stark cuts across much of the rest of the government including the elimination of dozens of long-standing federal programs that as-sist the poor, fund scientific research and aid America’s allies abroad.Trump’s first budget proposal, which he named “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again,” would in-crease defense spending by $54 billion and then offset that by stripping money from more than 18 other agencies. Some would be hit particularly hard, with re-ductions of more than 20 percent at the Agriculture, Labor and State departments and of more than 30 percent at the Envi-ronmental Protection Agency.It would also propose eliminating future federal support for the National Endow-ment for the Arts, the National Endow-ment for the Humanities and the Cor-poration for Public Broadcasting. Within EPA alone, 50 programs and 3,200 posi-tions would be eliminated.The cuts could represent the widest swath of reductions in federal programs since the drawdown after World War II, probably leading to a sizable cutback in the federal non-military workforce, something White House officials said was one of their goals.“You can’t drain the swamp and leave all the people in it,” White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told reporters.Many of Trump’s budget proposals are likely to run into stiff resistance from law-makers on Capitol Hill, even from Repub-licans, whose support is crucial because they must vote to authorize government appropriations. Republicans have ob-jected, for example, to the large cuts in foreign aid and diplomacy that Trump has foreshadowed, and his budget whacks for-eign aid programs run by the Education, State and Treasury departments, among others.“The administration’s budget isn’t going to be the budget,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). “We do the budget here. The ad-ministration makes recommendations, but Congress does budgets.”Trump’s budget would not take effect until the new fiscal year on Oct. 1, but the presi-dent must still reach a separate agreement with Congress by the end of April, when a temporary funding bill expires. If they can’t reach an agreement, and if Trump’s new budget plan widens fault lines, then

Marine Corps and Air Force. It would, among other things, acquire new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters and rebuild what it says are depleted munitions inventories. But it stops short of saying how these new funds would support new tactics to com-bat the Islamic State.The bump in defense spending was a marked contrast to the cuts Trump pro-posed in diplomatic and international programs. He proposed cutting com-bined spending for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development by $10.1 billion, or nearly 29 percent. It would cut an unspecified amount of funding from U.N. peacekeep-ing efforts. It would also cut spending for Treasury International Programs, foreign assistance programs that have been sup-ported by Republican and Democratic administrations, by $803 million, or 35 percent.Trump directed funding to meet several of his campaign pledges as well.He proposed new money to hire border security agents and immigration judges.And he requested $1.7 billion in new funding this year and an additional $2.6 billion in new funding in 2018 to begin construction of a wall along the border with Mexico. Trump proposed creating this wall during his campaign and had said Mexico would pay for it. A number of congressional Republicans appear to be cooling on the idea.The federal government is expected to spend more than $4 trillion in the fiscal year that begins in October, and Trump’s budget proposal would deal with slightly more than 25 percent of this funding. The government is expected to spend $487 billion more than it brings in through revenue during the next fiscal year, and to avoid widening the deficit, Trump pro-posed steep cuts across the budget to compensate for the new defense spend-ing.Trump will propose a more comprehen-sive budget plan in May, which could include changes to programs such as Medicaid and also offer economic fore-casts. But that proposal will come after the deadline for reaching an agreement to avoid a partial shutdown. So Thursday’s budget proposal from Trump will factor squarely into those negotiations.Kelsey Snell and Philip Rucker contrib-uted to this report.

the chances would increase for a partial government shutdown starting on April 29.The president and Congress must also raise the debt ceiling, which has become a politically fraught ritual. Although the ceiling was extended until March 15, bud-get experts say the government should be able to continue borrowing money by suspending or stretching out payments through August or September.White House budget proposals are often changed by lawmakers, but they serve as a marker for how the president plans to govern and as an opening bid on budget talks. Mulvaney said the White House was open to negotiation, but he was unapolo-getic about the size and scope of the re-ductions.“This budget represents a president who is beholden to nobody but the voters,” Mulvaney said. “He is following through on his promises. We did not consult with special interests on how to write this bud-get. We did not consult with lobbyists on how to write this budget. The president’s team wrote this budget and that’s what you’ll see in the numbers.”The 53-page budget plan offers the clear-est snapshot yet of Trump’s priorities. Yet it is also far shorter and vaguer than White House budget plans normally are. One of the missing details is precisely where and how many jobs would be eliminated across the federal government.Parts of the budget proposal also appear to contradict Trump’s agenda. Trump has said he wants to eliminate all disease, but the budget chops funding for the Nation-al Institutes of Health by $5.8 billion, or close to 20 percent. He has said he wants to create a $1 trillion infrastructure pro-gram, but the proposal would eliminate a Transportation Department program that funds nearly $500 million in road projects. It does not include new funding amounts or a tax mechanism for Trump’s infrastructure program, postponing those decisions.And the Trump administration proposed to eliminate a number of other programs, particularly those that serve low-income Americans and minorities, because it questioned their effectiveness. This in-cluded the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which disburses more than $3 billion annually to help heat homes in the winter. It also proposed abolishing the Community Development Block Grant program, which provides

Trump federal budget 2018: Massive cuts to the arts, science and the poor

By Damian Paletta and Steven Mufson March 16 at 12:01 AM Republished from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-federal-budget-2018-massive-cuts-to-the-arts-science-and-the-poor/2017/03/15/0a0a0094-09a1-11e7-

a15f-a58d4a988474_story.html?utm_term=.3a9cedc28645&tid=notifi_push_breaking-news&pushid=breaking-news_1489606367

What's getting cut in Trump's budget VIEW GRAPHIC

Page 6 March 25th, 2017

Vol.2, No. 69 Book Reviews

I cried at the end of that chapter be-cause that pain and powerless feeling is so real. Ordinary Afghans who struggle to feed their families are killed by these war-lords, manipulated by them and injus-tice unfolds everywhere in Afghanistan because of them. All these scenarios that the book describes are real. Afghans can’t even raise their voice against it, because if they do, death awaits them at the hands of the warlord’s militia just like the book states.

I’d recommend the book to those who are interested in finally reading some truths about Afghanistan, even if Hosse-ini lets his ethnic bias shine. In the end, the book doesn’t give you a conclusion to the life stories Hosseini has written about, but rather ends with this one message: “Life goes on…”

women in our society and around the world.

The Red Tent was enlightening and thought-provoking. Regardless of wheth-er you have heard of Dinah before or not, I believe that this book will be very inter-esting and enjoyable.

with the opposite gender. The one where the simple order of things, such as the crisply paved roads or the educated pro-fessionals there by merit and hard work not simply by family name, is an Afghani-stan that is very likely not going to come back any time soon. An Afghanistan I nev-er experienced, or to put it quite bluntly, that was robbed from my generation and the generations to come.

But what I liked about these chapters was that Hosseini made sure to describe the other face of the country in those days, the one outside of big cities like Ka-bul or Kandahar. The ordinary village life, with the livestock, the mud-built homes where people had to fetch water from the well. Although that life was simple, it had sharp reminders of the financial difficul-ties Afghans face and what some resort to – the selling of daughters, an action out of desperation to survive – a harsh reality for some Afghans today. This harsh real-ity is one that I have tried hard to remove from my mind all the time but in the story when Saboor sells his daughter Pari, my heart breaks a little. Most of the time when I’ve heard of such real life scenar-ios I tend to blame the father, not really thinking of how he feels or even thinking of the other family members. That book really shines bright on the loving relation-ship and strong bond that brothers and sisters share in Afghanistan, something hardly spoken about.

I was thrilled when the pages start-ed filling with Nila Wahdati. This was a woman after my own heart, living her life without a care for what people said or thought (something very hard to do when you’re Afghan), wearing the clothes she wanted and having the relationships she liked. I think Hosseini picked on a soft spot here, many Afghan females, in the west or inside Afghanistan, live the lives their family members want them to most of the time, not wanting to be bound by the guilt and the emotional rollercoaster

that Dinah is the narrator of her story and her family’s story.

Prior to reading The Red Tent, I never knew that Prophet Jacob had a daughter named Dinah. I never read the Bible or Torah in which these figures are illustrat-ed. Honestly, I never saw any mention of Dinah in the Quran. At least from the lim-ited religious knowledge I have from the Quran, I never heard of Jacob’s daughter but only his twelve sons! Well, thanks to The Red Tent which introduced Dinah to me!

Dinah is the only daughter of Jacob’s four wives (Leah, Rachel, Zilphah, and Bilhah) who have immense love for her. She learns many things from them and later in her life she becomes a popular midwife in Egypt. Since the society back then is strongly patriarchal, the male-fe-male communities are separated; there-fore, Dinah does not have very close re-lationships with her brothers, except for Joseph.

According to Genesis 34, Dinah is vi-olated and raped by a city ruler, Shechem. His later request to marry her results in her brothers’ demand that the males of Shechem’s whole city be circumcised. Driven by Shechem’s persuasions, the men agree to do so, and while they are

The Red Tent is a historical fiction novel written by Anita Diamant and pub-lished in 1997. Dinah, the only daughter of the Prophet Jacob, is the protagonist of The Red Tent. The beauty of the book is

Khaled Hosseini’s And the mountains echoed was different from Hosseini’s previous two books. This was more hon-est and realistic, and maybe that is why I liked it so much. The book is comprised of different stories but the characters are all interconnected.

After reading the first chapter, I was practically left in awe. It was a fantasy story, I find the spaces in fantasy stories one that soothes souls, and it was about kind “divs” or demons, gardens of fruit and beautiful flowers. My soul felt calmed by it, like it was telling me something, that people my age tend to forget, that time passes and things pass. The story of the div pardoning Baba Ayub with his po-tion to forget a-certain sadness in his life, made me so badly crave that potion too. It made me feel like all bad things have an end, they can be forgotten.

When I flipped the page into chapter two, I sighed and thought this is going to thrust me back into reality, where sadness isn’t forgotten so easily. The next chap-ters covered the reality of harsh truths of life as an Afghan; filled with heartbreak, emotional turmoil and betrayal. Chapter five was about the Kabul of today (or re-cent yesterday), about the expat life, the parties, the returnee western English-speaking Afghans who held themselves in high moral and glory because they were back again to “help.” It describes the di-lemma that Idris Bashiris goes through, about how charm and boasting gets you far in democratic Kabul. The simple fact was, Afghans had changed, the nature of their characters changed forever by war, displacement and exile. It was heart-breaking at how true and honest this ac-count of Afghans today was. This is what I liked, it was an honest account, and there was no sugar coating.

The first truth was that the Afghani-stan, of the 1960s onwards, was described as the one where mini skirt wearing Af-ghan women smoked, drank and mingled

that goes with fighting the norm. All the other females in the book that he writes about are also fac-ing this same challenge but in dif-ferent contexts. But in the end, each one of these females, one way or another, sacrifice what they want for their families, hit-ting a spot about Afghan culture we tend to love and hate - family is always first.

Another soft spot Hosseini hits in the book is the relationship with parents, he covers that love and hate relationship so many Afghans have. Whilst most of us want to do the things we want, we are still in the back of our mind wanting to be accepted and loved by our parents, we don’t just dis-miss them because their tradi-tions are old or they think differ-ently. We also feel the struggles they’ve gone through in life but at the same time want to take hold of all the opportunities in front of us, especially living in the western world. This is covered so well by Hosseini’s outline of Abdullah’s daughter Pari, who wants to do things any ordinary American teenager does - like go to a foot-ball game with her friends or to the school dance failing to realise how important Farsi language lessons are for the future.

But what I loved most about this book was the ability to describe the truth about warlords in Afghanistan. In that chapter he describes the relationship between the son of a warlord and an ordinary Afghan, how different their worlds are. How the ordinary Afghan feels pain at the injus-tice and has absolutely no power to fight against it. How land is grabbed, how mon-ey is stolen, how the warlord is made to look but what his true face is. And instead of these warlords being held accountable, they are praised for becoming democratic since the fall of the Taliban.

physically recovering from the pain, Di-nah’s brothers slaughter the men of the city, including Shechem, in revenge. The novel, in contrast, narrates the story dif-ferently. After Shechem’s murder, Dinah is taken away by her brothers, but she es-capes to Egypt with her mother-in-law. She gives birth to a son, Remose. She goes through many challenges but thanks to her midwifery skills, she becomes well-known and gains some independence. She lives the rest of her life in Egypt.

There were two things in the novel which grabbed my attention. Firstly, women did not have any decision-mak-ing authority and their role was inconse-quential, except for those who were be-lieved to be oracles like Jacob’s mother. They were treated as property by men for dealing with each other. For instance, two out of Jacob’s four wives were sent to the other two brides as part of their dow-ry. Secondly, women at that time were also the custodians of men’s so-called pride and honor. When Dinah was raped, the brothers slaughter the whole city not because of Dinah’s humiliation but be-cause of their own reputation. She would not have been accepted even if she es-caped after the rape and returned home. And these harsh realities still haunt many

And the mountains echoed – A book reviewAbout the author: Reviewed by: Peymana Assad, who was born in Kabul and grew up in London. She has a Masters of Arts from Kings College London in Conflict, Security and Develop-ment and currently works in Local Government in London. She advises on government relations for Women for Peace and Participation, a non-profit organisation working on getting

young female voices in the peace process in Afghanistan. https://peymanaassad.wordpress.com/2016/04/22/and-the-mountains-echoed/

Reviewed by: Aalam Gul Farhard, a long-time friend of Star Educational Society. She graduated from the American Univer-sity of Central Asia with a degree in Inter-national and Comparative Politics and is a current Fulbright finalist nominee. She works as a certification officer for the Af-ghanistan Institute of Civil Society.

The Red Tent – A book review

Page 7March 25th, 2017

Vol.2, No. 69Literary

StoriesMy Grandmother

Told Me

76

About the author: Hadi Zaher was the first graduate of Quetta's branch of Star Educational Society in the year 1999. He has an MA from the University of Wollongong in Australia and is currently a post-graduate student at the University of New South Wales.

I visited Afshar before the war. It was a poor but flourishing neighbor-hood on the slopes from where we had panoramic views of Kabul. The families living in Afshar were poor.

Most of the men worked in the markets, some worked for the government, some were soldiers and officers.

There was a government in Kabul at the time. It was calm and quite at the time. I remember that the Kabuli wom-en wore short skirts with bare legs. I saw many of them at the bus stations and on the streets. I wondered if they wore any-thing underneath but I could not know.

Your aunt Fazlamad’s mother lived there, so did your Babayٓ Aatay Azizulla, as did Mamoor Abdurrahim and many many other relatives.

When I visited your aunt before the war, we stayed at her house. She lived up a narrow street. Their house had three rooms, a large living area, one space for the guests, and a kitchen like area in the middle. We ate dinner on her roof-

ers were killed in their shop in the Afshar bazar. Another family fled and had to leave their young child behind. Another family was killed and their bodies thrown into the well in their family home. For many others, the women were allowed to leave but their men and young girls were taken away and never found again. Aatay Azizullah said he had come face to face with a Sayyafi soldier who carried a

top and I spent the evening staring at the city-lights that were visible as far as I could see. I had never seen so many lights before.

We were refugees at the time of the massacre in Afshar. We heard the hor-ror and the stories a long time later. Aa-tay Azizullah fled at night and crawled through a line of tanks. Your aunt and her family took refuge in the basement of the nearby hospital. Mojahideen fired rockets at the hospital and hit the base-ment, which at the time was full of fami-lies that had just fled their homes. The rocket killed many in the basement, and injured many others. Your cousin Ilham was hit in the leg. Fazlamad later told us that after the rocket hit the hospital there was so much blood on the floor that his feet were drenched in it.

They told me many horror stories from that massacre but I am old now and I do not recall them all. One family lost all their men when the father was killed at their home and the three broth-

sword soaked in human blood. Afshar was cleansed. There was not one home left intact and there was not one fam-ily left behind. I wish I remembered the other stories they told me.

From there the survivors fled west and eventually into the mountains. Some fled to Quetta, others went to Ma-zar and Jaghori.

Facing ItMy black face fades,hiding inside the black granite.I said I wouldn't,dammit: No tears.I'm stone. I'm flesh.My clouded reflection eyes melike a bird of prey, the profile of nightslanted against morning. I turnthis way--the stone lets me go.I turn that way--I'm insidethe Vietnam Veterans Memorialagain, depending on the lightto make a difference.I go down the 58,022 names,half-expecting to findmy own in letters like smoke.I touch the name Andrew Johnson;I see the booby trap's white flash.Names shimmer on a woman's blousebut when she walks awaythe names stay on the wall.Brushstrokes flash, a red bird'swings cutting across my stare.The sky. A plane in the sky.A white vet's image floatscloser to me, then his pale eyeslook through mine. I'm a window.He's lost his right arminside the stone. In the black mirrora woman's trying to erase names:No, she's brushing a boy's hair.

Yusef Komunyakaa is an award-win-ning poet raised in the deep south during a time of racial intolerance and conflict. As a young boy, he fulfilled his eagerness to read with the bible and books at a local church library. His work encompasses his experiences in the Vietnam War, race re-lations, jazz and the blues. He is currently a professor at New York University.

am alive and Farkhonda is dead. I know this is not the first or last painful story of Afghan women.

Many people believe that justice was not served after this brutal attack. Other than the memorial that has been erected near Shah-Du-Shamshera shrine, do you think there have been any other lasting changes in response to this tragedy? In a country where an accusation about burning the Quran led to a brutal murder that is going largely unpunished, there is potential that such claims could lead to more violence. The accusation of being an infidel or a non-believer is the fastest way to send someone to their death in Afghanistan. Since Fark-honda’s murder, there have been thou-sands of cases of violence against women but the consequences are insignificant. The activists who were fighting for justice in the case were threatened and secluded. Even on social networks, their personalities were being assassinated. I am being real-istic when I say there have been no lasting changes. I think women in this society are in prison and cornered. Everybody wants to defend women and support women, but in many cases their motive is just to become famous.

It is widely believed that Farkhonda’s at-tack was an example of discrimination against women and their lack of protec-tion. However, when a Quran was burned by a preacher in the U.S. in 2011, thou-sands of Afghan protestors attacked a United Nations office in Mazar-e-Sharif and killed 12 people. Likewise, in 2012, when workers discovered Qurans being burned at Bagram Air Base, riots erupted across the country. Five days of protests ended with 30 deaths and over 200 peo-ple wounded. What responsibility do you believe religious leaders have to address overzealous and misinformed follow-ers? People need to be educated. Religion should be fully displayed to people. Reli-gion should be interpreted for people. Re-ligion is not a source of trouble and suffer-ing for the people. Religion brings comfort

Saturday, March 25, 2017 Vol. 2, No. 69

to people’s lives. People need to know that law enforcement is the responsibility of le-gal entities and should not be taken by the general public. This tragedy may happen to men and women, but for women it is worse than men, because women are weaker in our society. Women are more quickly and easily targeted in Afghanistan.

A protestor at Bagram Air Base said, “This means they burned our faith, our honor and our lives.” Can Farkhonda’s murder be compared to an honor-killing? If so, please share your thoughts. I don’t agree in two words. A ghazi is someone who kills infidels and a martyr is someone killed by the hands of infidels. Farkhonda was a martyr, a victim. She was a victim affected by the weak rule of law in Afghanistan, af-fected by the misinterpretation of religion, damaged by our culture’s false beliefs, damaged by the ignorance of the people. I feel sorry for those who were involved in the murder of Farkhonda. They have been affected by decades of war and bloodshed. They have been raised in this area. In this society, killing a woman in this manner is wrongly considered an honor. They feel like a hero. Although we have laws, there is no serious implementation and enforcement of the laws. For this reason, ignorant people take the law into their own hands without a proper understanding or interpretation of the law.

international community, misogyny is still visible in society. In the short term, people were concerned about the safety of females in society. I believe there was no long-term impact, because the criminal justice pro-cess failed. The acquittal of some of the kill-ers and the court’s merciful ruling towards others has led people to think there are no repercussions to emotional and violent ac-tions. The decision by the court is a huge step back.

Were you personally involved in the dem-onstrations, funeral or re-enactment? If so, can you please tell us about that ex-perience. Yes, I was present. Farkhonda’s coffin is still heavy on my shoulders. That day I came out with long dress without any makeup. I was the first person entering Farkhonda’s home. Her family was crying. The people brought the coffin inside and I saw Farkhonda’s brutalized face and her open eye. I was feeling that she is not in-side the coffin, it’s me. Suddenly I had vivid memories of my own life ten years earlier when I myself was forcefully separated from my daughter. I was beaten, I was tortured, and my voice was not heard. Those days I had the same situation as Farkhonda, but her situation was more tragic. For six years, I had no chance to see my daughter, be-cause men who misused religion decided the fate for me and my daughter. However, I

Editor's note: This interview focuses on the case of Farkhonda Malikzada, 27, who was beaten to death after being falsely accused of burning a copy of the Quran near a shrine in Kabul on March 19, 2015.

I understand that you were at the fore-front of the protests demanding justice for Farkhonda. Can you please tell us about yourself and your background? My name is Munera Yousufzada. Right now, I am acting as spokeswoman for the Independent Di-rectorate of Local Governance (IDLG) and also working in Directorate of Information and Public Awareness as the director. I have eight years of work experience in the field of civil society, particularly women's rights. I have more than 50 analytical articles and I am an active writer in civil society. Also, I have a weblog with the name of http://shid-dokht.blogspot.com which includes content about critical texts of human rights and women's rights in Afghanistan. Activists staged demonstrations, carried Farkhonda’s coffin during her funeral and performed a re-enactment of Farkhonda’s murder. What impact do you think these efforts made in the short and long term? It had a huge impact on the morale of many people. On the other hand, many people were indifferent to the tragic incident. De-spite all efforts of the government and the

About the interviewer: Mohammad Ali Fakur is a Star alumnus and a human rights activist. He has a BA with honors in Law and Political Science from Gawhar-shad University.

“Farkhonda’s coffin is still heavy on my shoulders”

Interview with Munera Yousufzada, civil society activist and writer

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