How would you feel if you couldn't go to school because of the fear of being thrown acid on your face? How would you feel if attending a class meant accepting the possibility of being blown up by a bomb? And how would you feel if it were your daughter running these risks every day going to school? You got the picture. It might sound like an exaggeration, but this still happens today in rural Afghanistan. Afghan women today risk not only to be poisoned, but also to be disfigured by going to school. Getting an education for an Afghan woman is forbidden by the Taliban movement. When they used to rule Afghanistan, girls were banned from going to school and women were only allowed to leave their homes with a male relative as an escort.

When I think about the difficulties an Afghan woman must encounter trying to get herself an education (and more chances for a more stable economic future for her family as well), I can't help thinking about the type of leadership and inspiration Roya Mahboob, the CEO of the Afghan Citadel Software Company, is providing for girls and women in this country. After her interview with the United Nations, in which she talks about the plan to provide 40 schools around Herat - the third largest city in Afghanistan - with Internet classrooms, it's important to recognize her effort to give the same chances she had to many more Afghan women. With the financial support of Francesco Rulli, CEO of Filmannex, the Afghan Development Project will support the education system in Afghanistan by providing in three years 160,000 children with not only the logistics, but also the educational tools to succeed in the modern world. These are the next businessmen and women of the country. The war in Afghanistan won't last forever, and these young Afghans know that it will be vital that they move early to benefit from the opportunities that this new market will create. They represent the future of the economy in Afghanistan.

I find brilliant that among the thousands of young Afghan women who will be exposed and inspired because of this project could emerge the next leader of Afghanistan, with the chance to bring equality and justice to a people who has never had them. It could take as many as one woman to empower thousands to take ownership of what is already theirs.

Acid belongs only to chemistry classes.

Giacomo Cresti

http://www.filmannex.com/webtv/giacomo