Thousands of Afghan girls and women learning to read, write and add are contributing to their country’s peace efforts, as the world marks this year’s Literacy Day by focusing on the link between literacy and peace.

Sabria, 18, is a full-time student in the 12th grade who spends two hours nearly every day teaching 25 girls and women in her Jalalabad living room how to read and write.

“If we want Afghanistan to be a prosperous country we should make sure Afghan women are educated and fully engaged in the development process of the country,” said Sabira.

The Afghan Ministry of Education started community literacy centres for women and girls two decades ago to provide them with basic, informal education. The centres were meant to bridge a gap for remote villagers who lived far from schools or in communities where parents prevented their daughters from studying.

“My family doesn’t allow me to go to school. That is why I decided to study in the literacy course located at one of our neighbouring houses,” said Sharifa, 16, a student in Jalalabad city.

Supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP), such informal literacy centres are a way to eliminate illiteracy. While girls’ school enrolment rates shot up from nearly zero to more than 30 per cent in the past decade, only about one in five Afghan women are literate compared with one out of every two men.

According to Government figures, the younger a girl is, the more likely she knows how to read and write.

“A country destroyed by decades of civil war will not stand on its own feet if half of its population – women – is inactive,” said Fazel Nabi, head of the Literacy Section of the Department of Education in Nangarhar province, who plays a coordinating role between UNICEF and the Department of Education.

“Women and girls need to be educated, that is why we are trying to establish such courses as much as possible,” Nabi said, adding that education of girls in urban areas is especially critical.

WFP helps entice girls and women to attend the nine-month long courses by providing their families with wheat, cooking oil and other food products, while UNICEF provides teacher training, supplies stationary, text books and classroom materials and supplements the teachers’ incomes.

More than 9,500 girls and women are learning at 330 female literacy centres in the eastern provinces

Meanwhile, in Mazar-e-Sharif, two dozen women ranging in age from 14 to 45 are crammed in a room learning for the first time how to read and write.

“My father sold me into marriage when I was 13 years old. I never had a chance to learn the alphabet,” said 45-year-old Sharifa, now in her fourth month of literacy class. She spends two hours in the class, six days a week.

Sharifa is one of more than 3,200 women studying at 700 literacy centres across the northern provinces. In addition to learning how to read and write, the women are taught basic hygiene and maternity health.

“I now have nine children and my husband is paralysed. I didn’t know anything about personal hygiene and the healthcare of my children. These books contain a lot of useful information about health issues that are very important,” Sharifa said.

The knowledge gained adds a new dimension to the lives of women who attend the classes.

“Now I can read signboards, addresses, and letters while I was not able to even save a telephone number on my mobile set before attending literacy course” said 24-year-old Fatima.

The importance of literacy in a conflict country is highlighted in this year’s commemoration of International Literacy Day under the theme “Literacy and Peace.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the Day is an important reminder of how being able to read and write are fundamental aspects of human dignity, contributing to the prevention of violence, calming of tensions and ending of conflicts.

“Literacy unlocks the capacity of individuals to imagine and create a more fulfilling future. It … can help societies heal, advance political processes and contribute to the common good,” he said in his annual message.

In her message for the day, Irina Bokova, the head of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), urged governments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector to make literacy a policy priority.

“It is crucial to integrate literacy in peace building processes in order to plant the seeds of peace, foster dialogue and reconciliation, and give youth and adults the skills they need to seek decent employment.”

The Government of Afghanistan pledged at the UN General Assembly meeting in 2000 to ensure that by 2020, all Afghan boys and girls would complete a full course of primary schooling, and that just as many girls as boys would be literate - in line with the global anti-poverty goals known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

By UNAMA Jalalabad and Mazar-e-Sharif