When I was 11, I remember waking up one morning to the sound of joy in my house. My father was listening to BBC News on his small, gray radio. There was a big smile on his face which was unusual then, because the news mostly depressed him.
我11歲的時候, 我記得一天早上醒來, 歡樂的聲音蕩漾在我的房子裡。 我的父親正在聽英國廣播公司的新聞, 用他的小灰色收音機聽。 他臉掛上個不尋常的大大笑容, 因為新聞大多會讓他沮喪。
"The Taliban are gone!" my father shouted.
「塔利班都走了!」我父親喊道。
I didn't know what it meant, but I could see that my father was very, very happy.
我不知道這是什麼意思, 但是我看得出來父親非常開心。
"You can go to a real school now," he said.
「你現在可以上一所真正的學校了,」他說。
A morning that I will never forget. A real school. You see, I was six when the Taliban took over Afghanistan and made it illegal for girls to go to school. So for the next five years, I dressed as a boy to escort my older sister, who was no longer allowed to be outside alone, to a secret school. It was the only way we both could be educated. Each day, we took a different route so that no one would suspect where we were going. We would cover our books in grocery bags so it would seem we were just out shopping. The school was in a house, more than 100 of us packed in one small living room. It was cozy in winter but extremely hot in summer. We all knew we were risking our lives -- the teacher, the students and our parents. From time to time, the school would suddenly be canceled for a week because Taliban were suspicious. We always wondered what they knew about us. Were we being followed? Do they know where we live? We were scared, but still, school was where we wanted to be.
那是個我永遠也不會忘記的早晨。 一所真正的學校。 你知道,我六歲時,塔利班控制阿富汗 並規定女性上學違法, 所以在接下來的五年, 我打扮成男孩 護送我那不再被允許 獨自外出的姊姊 去一個秘密的學校。 這是我們都可以接受教育的唯一方法。 每天,我們都走不同的路線, 才不會讓人對我們要去哪裡起疑。 我們會把書用購物袋裹起來, 這樣看來我們只是出去購物。 學校是在一棟房子裡, 我們超過100人一起 擠在一個小客廳裡。 冬天很舒適,但夏天異常熱。 我們都清楚自己正冒著性命危險, 老師、學生和我們的父母。 學校會時不時地突然取消一週的課, 因為塔利班覺得可疑了。 我們總是擔心 他們知道我們的什麼事。 我們被跟蹤了嗎? 他們知道我們住哪嗎? 我們都很害怕, 但是,我們仍然想上學。
I was very lucky to grow up in a family where education was prized and daughters were treasured. My grandfather was an extraordinary man for his time. A total maverick from a remote province of Afghanistan, he insisted that his daughter, my mom, go to school, and for that he was disowned by his father. But my educated mother became a teacher. There she is. She retired two years ago, only to turn our house into a school for girls and women in our neighborhood. And my father -- that's him -- he was the first ever in his family to receive an education. There was no question that his children would receive an education, including his daughters, despite the Taliban, despite the risks. To him, there was greater risk in not educating his children. During Taliban years, I remember there were times I would get so frustrated by our life and always being scared and not seeing a future. I would want to quit, but my father, he would say, "Listen, my daughter, you can lose everything you own in your life. Your money can be stolen. You can be forced to leave your home during a war. But the one thing that will always remain with you is what is here, and if we have to sell our blood to pay your school fees, we will. So do you still not want to continue?"
我很幸運出生在一個 崇尚教育、珍惜女兒的家庭。 我的外公在他那個年代 是個特別偉大的人。 他是一位來自阿富汗 偏遠省份的特立獨行者, 他堅持他的女兒,也就是我的媽媽, 得去上學,因此 我的曾祖父與他斷絕關係。 但是我受過教育的母親成為了教師。 這就是她。 她兩年前退休了,接著就把我們的房子 改成一所學校來接收 附近的女孩和婦女。 而我的父親,就是他, 他是在他家庭中第一個受教育的。 毫無疑問,他的孩子也會就接受教育, 包括她的女兒們, 不管塔利班,不管任何風險。 對他來說,不教育他的孩子們 是更大的風險。 在塔利班掌權期間,我記得 我曾一度對這樣的生活感到沮喪, 一直覺得害怕,而且看不到未來。 我想過要放棄, 但我的父親, 他會說: 「聽著,我的女兒, 你可以失去生命中擁有的一切, 你的錢可以被偷走、 你在戰爭期間被迫離家也沒關係, 但唯一會永遠陪伴著你的東西, 就在這裡。 如果我們必須賣血來付你的學費, 那我們也願意。 你還不想要繼續念書嗎?」
Today I am 22. I was raised in a country that has been destroyed by decades of war. Fewer than six percent of women my age have made it beyond high school, and had my family not been so committed to my education, I would be one of them. Instead, I stand here a proud graduate of Middlebury College.
現在我22歲。 我成長於一個被幾十年戰爭 所破壞的國家。 我同齡的女子中 僅不到 6% 完成高中學業, 如果我的家庭不那麼支持我的教育, 我現在會是她們其中的一個。 但是,我成為明德學院 一名自豪的畢業生站在這裡。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
When I returned to Afghanistan, my grandfather, the one exiled from his home for daring to educate his daughters, was among the first to congratulate me. He not only brags about my college degree, but also that I was the first woman, and that I am the first woman to drive him through the streets of Kabul.
當我回到阿富汗時, 我那個因為敢讓女兒受教育, 而被逐出家園的外公 是第一群前來祝賀我的人之一。 他不僅會炫耀我的大學文憑, 也會說我是第一個女子, 他有生以來第一個 開車載他穿過喀布爾大街的女子。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
My family believes in me. I dream big, but my family dreams even bigger for me. That's why I am a global ambassador for 10x10, a global campaign to educate women. That's why I cofounded SOLA, the first and perhaps only boarding school for girls in Afghanistan, a country where it's still risky for girls to go to school. The exciting thing is that I see students at my school with ambition grabbing at opportunity. And I see their parents and their fathers who, like my own, advocate for them, despite and even in the face of daunting opposition.
我的家庭相信我。 我的夢想很大, 但我的家庭甚至比我夢想得更大。 這就是為什麼我成為了 10×10 的全球形象大使, 這是一個教育女子的全球運動。 這就是我為什麽創立了 SOLA, 阿富汗第一且也許是唯一的 女子寄宿學院, 就在一個女子上學還有危險的國家。 令人欣喜的是, 我看到我學校裡的學生們 帶著夢想,抓住一切機會。 我還看到她們的家長,還有父親們, 和我的父親一樣, 就算在面對使人恐懼的阻礙時, 也擁護她們。
Like Ahmed. That's not his real name, and I cannot show you his face, but Ahmed is the father of one of my students. Less than a month ago, he and his daughter were on their way from SOLA to their village, and they literally missed being killed by a roadside bomb by minutes. As he arrived home, the phone rang, a voice warning him that if he sent his daughter back to school, they would try again.
比如 Ahmed。這不是他的真名, 我也不能給你們看他的臉。 但 Ahmed 是我一個學生的父親。 不到一個月前,他和他的女兒 在從 SOLA 回到他們的村莊的路上, 驚險地躲過了死亡的危險。 因為在幾分鐘內, 路邊的一顆炸彈爆炸了。 他們一回到家,電話就響了。 對方警告他, 如果他膽敢再把女兒送回學校, 他們還會這樣做。
"Kill me now, if you wish," he said, "but I will not ruin my daughter's future because of your old and backward ideas."
「如果你想的話, 現在就殺了我吧,」他說。 「但是我不會僅僅 因為你陳舊落後的想法, 葬送我女兒的未來。」
What I've come to realize about Afghanistan, and this is something that is often dismissed in the West, that behind most of us who succeed is a father who recognizes the value in his daughter and who sees that her success is his success. It's not to say that our mothers aren't key in our success. In fact, they're often the initial and convincing negotiators of a bright future for their daughters, but in the context of a society like in Afghanistan, we must have the support of men. Under the Taliban, girls who went to school numbered in the hundreds -- remember, it was illegal. But today, more than three million girls are in school in Afghanistan.
我認識到的有關阿富汗的事實, 雖然它經常被西方忽視, 那就是在我們大多數成功者的身後, 有一個明白自己女兒價值, 並且將女兒的成功 視為自己成就的父親。 這並不表示母親不是我們成功的關鍵。 事實上,她們經常是天生令人信服的, 為女兒美好未來而努力的談判者。 但是在像阿富汗這樣的社會中, 我們必須有男人的支持。 在塔利班的統治時期間, 去上學的女孩 數量僅為幾百人。 提醒一下,這是不合法的。 但是今天,在阿富汗有超過三百萬的 女孩們在學校接受教育。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
Afghanistan looks so different from here in America. I find that Americans see the fragility in changes. I fear that these changes will not last much beyond the U.S. troops' withdrawal. But when I am back in Afghanistan, when I see the students in my school and their parents who advocate for them, who encourage them, I see a promising future and lasting change. To me, Afghanistan is a country of hope and boundless possibilities, and every single day the girls of SOLA remind me of that. Like me, they are dreaming big.
從美國的角度來看,阿富汗非常不同。 我發現美國人看到了改變的脆弱性。 而我害怕這些變化在美軍撤軍以後, 不會長久地持續下去。 但是當我回到阿富汗的時候, 我看到我學校裡的學生們 和始終支持、鼓勵她們的家長, 我看到了充滿希望的未來, 和可以持之以恆的改變。 對我來說,阿富汗是一個 充滿希望和無限可能的國家。 每一天, SOLA 的女孩們都讓我堅信這一點。 像我一樣,她們都有遠大的夢想。
Thank you.
謝謝你們。
(Applause)
(鼓掌)