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’.