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