[Assam] [Iepcohort2005-list] Prof. Reimers' last class today !!! Taliban and gender issue

[umesh sharma]

Umesh Sharma <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

From: "Umesh Sharma" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2005 23:13:40 -0400
CC:
Subject: [Iepcohort2005-list] Prof. Reimers' last class today !!! Taliban and gender issu

Hi,

Today we had a wonderful last class of Professor Reimers (on Inequality and Education), preceded
by that of his better half on Professional Dev. of teachers. It was part of a Summer Program by IE
Group where 39 participants from 20 countries of 4 continents are participating.

I must say this last class was a link to the real world - since the "students" (we IEPers were
just observers or assistants) had many diverging comments to make. A few men from the Middle East
- very surprisingly ( I never expected to hear this at Harvard) still debated the issue of equality of both sexes - in education and outcomes. Infact some were downright dogmatic that whta
is the need of educating women - and that it is a western concept!!

I could have understood if this discussion had taken place in a remote village in Asia between
educators and illiterate rural folk----but surprisingly this debate was taking place at a Harvard
meeting - among educators. I now realize how difficult it is to change perceptions and attitudes -
when people can speak such stuff in a very Western environment.

One of the, who presumably mistook me for a fellow muslim - I had been to a talk in a Green Indian
Kurta (shirt), generally worn by muslims - lamented that the Pure Islamic rule of Taliban had been
destroyed and children were been killed there. I wonder how hard it must have been for Professor
Reimers in 1980s in Pakistan, when Taliban was in full form and had Pakistan's support. For those
who might be unaware, Taliban forbad! e female education and work, forbade women and young girls to
move about without a male relative accompanying them . And still there are educators who lament
that "Pure" Taliban is no more!!


Thankfully, I had a talk afterwards with an educator from Islamic Republic of Malaysia --- a very
progressive nation and whose education system's qulaity was compared earlier by Prof. Tom Cassidy
- with that of Scotland. And how Malaysia tries to downplay the differences between Hindus ,
muslims, Buddhists and Christians - and the 3 races Chinese (who dominate the economy) and Malays
and Indians -with positive discrimination in education for Malyas and Indians .

Today was like a mini UN meeting -- where all were from developing nations.

It was also enlightening to see that the female participants were urging Professor Reimers to
speak abouut gender issues in education (esp. in Mexico) while some men seemed disgruntled by the
idea.

I! guess, since none of them have to submit term papers -- they spoke as they felt - unalloyed.

My guess is they haven't been surfing the internet properly and have been relying for their news
and viwews on biased media in their nations. I think this is one area where Internet can help
shape people views, and overcome the bias in education system and media of any nation. World Bank
has recently initiated Internet kioks in India (I think after Varda Pande won the KSG business
plan prize) - this shaping of people's views and attitudes could be a real benefit of that -
though I'm not very convinced by the usefulness of the inetrnet kiosks in regular education
context.

Thats the real world experience!

Good luck to us all. Do join the F-graduates list and keep in touch.

Umesh

PS: I suspect some of the male chauvinist participants did not like the idea that Professor
Villegas-Reimers and her husband - Professor Reimers were on ! equal footing -(both delivered the
talks today)- and having equal outcomes of their education. Other males were really tuned in to
the talk and asking questions.
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