Journey of Hope 2016 | Page 28

LOVE IN THE TIME OF HOMEWORK A CONVERSATION WITH EDUCATION & WOMEN’S RIGHTS ACTIVIST NASRINE GROSS by Hannah White F or more than 20 years, Nasrine Gross has been a pioneer in educational programing and a champion of women’s rights. A dual citizen of both Afghanistan and the U.S., she runs an organization that provides literacy classes for husbands and wives in Kabul, an innovative approach not seen anywhere else in the country. The courses allow 10 couples at a time to meet in their neighborhoods and learn to read, write, do arithmetic, and eventually delve into historical and social issues. At the end of the one-year course, students are performing at a third-grade level. The second year program is the equivalent of the fourth grade. Recently, her organization has also started offering scholarships to talented, orphaned, or poor students who would be unable to attend college without financial aid. In addition to her work on education, Nasrine was also instrumental in crafting what eventually became the section on women’s rights in the Afghan constitution. 26 | JOURNEY OF HOPE She currently serves as a media affairs advisor to the Office of the Chief Executive and divides her time between Falls Church, Virginia, and Kabul, Afghanistan. This piece is a selection of excerpts from a conversation that Central Asia Institute Communications Director Hannah White had with Mrs. Gross in late 2015. q Hannah: Did you grow up in Afghanistan? Nasrine: Yes, in Kabul. I grew up during the kind of Golden Age of progress in Afghanistan. I went to school in the first girls’ school in Afghanistan. My entire 12 years. I had my baccalaureate from there and I graduated first in my class. And then I went for one year to Kabul University to the faculty (department) of Law and Political Science. And there, at that time, the entrance exam was not for entering the university; it was to determine which university students would become eligible to receive scholarships. And so I got third place. The first place guy went to America; the second place guy went to France; and the third place went to the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. Hannah: Did you meet your husband there? Nasrine: I did. What are the chances of someone from Iowa and someone from Afghanistan ever meeting?...We got married in 1968. So is it 45 years? It’s very nice. I recommend marriage. Hannah: Do you think the fact that you met your husband at the American University of Beirut influenced your decision to offer literacy classes for couples instead of individuals? Nasrine: Maybe to a certain extent, but certainly the effect, the importance of civil activism and how civil advocacy was very much part of the ethos of the university at that time. We were all encouraged to become members of all these other societies. And you know, I was a member of four or five of them…Really the couples literacy, I have to say, is a legacy of my father and mother. My father and mother were the first, literally the CENTRAL ASIA INSTITUTE