GLOBAL NETWORK CIRCLE STORY

Peace Circle (Afghanistan) member Alean Haider

The Sonoma County Women's Council (U.S.) and Peace Circle (Afghanistan), connected through email in 2002, were Peace X Peace's first sister Circle match. Their success story speaks to how incremental changes can produce monumental transformations. 

In an era when the education of women was banned by the ruling Taliban, Peace X Peace member Alean Haider, then a young girl in her teens, pursued her education in underground all-female schools. Despite the well publicized threats of the government, Alean was determined to succeed. With the support of her parents, after completing both primary and secondary schooling, Alean opened a secret school in her home to teach English to girls. When asked to recall her motivation for teaching in such dangerous circumstances, Alean answers, "When you have an aim to reach, you don't think about being scared. I had the aim to finish my English courses and start teaching." 

Alean was hired to work for the United Nations in Kabul shortly after graduating from high school. This job was the sole means of support for all six members of her immediate family. (Once a prominent judge in the courts of Kabul, Alean's father was fired when rule of law was eradicated in Afghanistan.) This enormous responsibility brought with it equally enormous gifts, most notably greater proficiency in English and access to the internet.

Alean learned about Peace X Peace through the filming of our documentary Peace By Peace: Women on the Frontlines in 2002. Her Circle, featured in the movie's section on Afghanistan, joined Peace X Peace before the release of the Global Network email platform, while it was still a vision. Stephanie Hiller of the Sonoma County Women's Council, in turn, learned of the organization after a Google search for "women and peace" brought her to the then 3-page website. Connected via their personal email accounts, the two Circles began communicating with one another in a process that led to strangers becoming friends and friends becoming family. 

As the only member of her Circle with English proficiency and regular access to the Internet, Alean became the primary contact between her 50-plus member Circle and their U.S. match. Though the leader of the group, Sureya Perlika, is a respected female elder in Afghanistan, Alean, by far the youngest member of the group, was charged with communicating on the Circle's behalf. Within the safe space of their larger connection, Alean expressed her inconceivable dream: to go to college in the western world and change both her future and the future of her homeland.

What happened next can be described as kismet. At the Sonoma County Women's Council's first fundraiser for their Sister Circle in Afghanistan, attendee Marsha MacColl took center stage to inform the audience about the Initiative to Educate Afghan Women. Founded to further higher education among Afghan women denied access to schooling during the seven-year Taliban reign, the Initiative provides full tuition scholarships for talented young women dedicated to reconstructing their country. Council members Diane Schulz and Stephanie Hiller sent the application to Alean. Several months later, she was enrolled at Montclair State University in New Jersey.

Despite the unstable situation in Kabul, Alean returns each summer to intern in her community. She has helped to administer an estimated $6,000 in contributions for a microlending enterprise that the Sonoma County Women's Council  and Peace Circle co-created. This project, which distributes small loans to expand business opportunities for women, has benefited each member of the connection while helping to improve the status of women across Afghanistan. 

When she graduates from Montclair State University, Alean plans to attend graduate school. Then she will return to Afghanistan to run the microfinance project that grew from her Peace X Peace connection.