Afghan Border Police trains on literacy, gender equality by Sgt. Marc Loi, 319th MPAD
FORWARD OPERATING BASE SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan – Under a scorching sun and in front of a host of general officers from various NATO nations, the Afghan national army’s Fort Spin Boldak Kodiak graduated its final class of 130 Afghan Border Police recruits, inching yet closer to the 160,000 security providers the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan set as the threshold required to take the lead in its own national defense.
Though much similar to other graduations, the Aug. 27 rite-of-passage also had special meanings for recruits, as it was the last class to have trained at the fort. Built in 1880 under Amir Abdul Rahman, the fort is one of the oldest military posts in the country, and until now, served as training ground from one of the five regional training facilities in Afghanistan. The class was also one of the first to train for eight instead of six week, giving trainers, who comprised of Romanian and American troops, the chance to teach trainees basic reading skills and an awareness of human rights and gender equality.
Pictured: An Afghan Border policeman shows off his graduation certificate to fellow classmates during a ceremony at the Fort Spin Boldak (Kodiak) Aug. 27. One of 130 graduates, he will join more than 130,000 other Afghan National Police officers to provide safety and security for Afghanistan.
With an illiteracy rate of nearly 90 percent, ABP officers face many special challenges pertaining to their jobs, to include being able to take notes and follow directions, as well as read passports and street signs when they are on patrol. This training, along with an emphasis on human rights, U.S. officials hope, will set the foundation for the ABP’s success, said Romanian army Sgt. Burlacu Mircea.
A trainer and mentor during the eight-week course, Mircea said the key in teaching recruits to read is emphasizing that recruits need literacy to do their jobs which, in turn, makes them more equipped to provide safety and security for Afghanistan.
One recruit, Zabihullah Roshan, an ambulance driver and recent-graduate of the training program, said although he’d learned elementary reading skills previously, the class helped him understand more of what he was reading, and in turn, makes him a better ABP officer.
“If I work at the airport and someone comes with [a] passport, I can now know what it says,” he said.
“If I can’t read passport, I am no good as [a] police officer because they can enter my country,” Roshan added, referring to terrorists who enter Afghanistan illegally at border checkpoints and airports, which the ABP is responsible for securing.
More than enabling him to accomplish his basic security duties, reading and writing skills will also help Roshan inspire children learn to read, he said. An important reason for this, Roshan added, is that children often trust older figures of authority and thus he as well as other ABP officers have a chance to positively influence them.
“They trust us to make better security for Afghanistan,” he said. “We say they must have education so they can solve their own problems.”
Influencing children to build a better Afghanistan, however, is a long-range plan. The ABP’s immediate goal, per NATO’s desired end states, is to defeat and suppress the presence of terrorist networks. One of the ways that can be accomplished on smaller levels, Roshan said, is to teach Afghans to read, which will allow them to counter religious propaganda terrorist networks often use to recruit new members.
“[The terrorists] use people to fight their neighbors because they don’t know how to read,” he said. “We must work with them because when they have [an] education, they don’t let so many people use them.”
Already, in just two weeks of literacy training, Roshan has improved his reading skills and is passing them on to his family and in doing so, Roshan said he hopes to inspire others to join him.
“They are proud to see me in my uniform,” he said. “They also want to learn because it’s good for their country and themselves.”
Much like changing mindsets in literacy, ABP trainers are also changing mindsets in gender relations. In Afghanistan, which the New York Times columnist Nicholas Krisoff, in the book “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” identified as being among the troubled spots in which it is “dangerous to be a woman,” gender violence often got overlooked.
Partly because the Taliban ruled with an iron fist and readily punished any woman it saw as “impure,” and partly because law enforcement officers rarely, if ever, received training on gender equality, Afghanistan quickly shot up the priority list for women’s rights organization at the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom. In recent years, the Department of Defense, along with State Department, has also identified women’s rights as one of the major keys in rebuilding a more stabled Afghanistan.
With the new focus, ABP recruits also received training on preventing sexual assaults and domestic violence, Mircea said. Though the classes were crunched in with the two weeks of literacy training, Mircea said seeing gender violence from women’s perspectives is often a profound experience for the recruits.
“They’re surprised to hear that violence against women is unacceptable,” he said. “But they’re smart and are learning. When we show them pictures of women who were beaten, they have sad looks on their faces.”
In approaching such a subject – one that crosses cultural and religious barriers, trainers take great care in pushing forward women’s rights, while at the same time, ensuring that recruits understand they weren’t there to change the culture. Much like many non-government organizations that have, for years, worked in the human rights field, ABP trainers focus not on whether a culture is “right” or “wrong,” but rather, to bring awareness to recruits about issues that, for too long, have rendered Afghan women fearful for their lives.
“They learned about IEDs, drugs, weapons and some other issues, but they didn’t learn about violence against women,” Mircea said. “We’re here to show them.”
Much like many other efforts in Afghanistan, Mircea said it is too early to tell if the program will be successful. If the looks on the faces and actions of the recent graduates are any indications, however, the new training program is already a success.
Dressed in their newly-issued fatigue uniforms, ABP officers gave visiting guests and dignitaries a thumbnail-sketch of what they learned, running tactical drills in front of the crowd of about 100. Armed with the new ability to write and communicate, some also gave their e-mail addresses to visiting journalists, welcoming follow-up questions and requesting that journalists send them graduation photos. Though not each day of their career will be this peaceful or happy, nor will they always receive publicity for the hard and often dangerous work they engage in, ABP officers said they were ready for the task at hand – namely, to contribute to a nation that many of them grew up in and continued to love, despite hardship.
“I want to help my country, that’s why I joined,” said 39-year-old Aboul Malek, who previously worked as a farmer before he decided to join. “I wanted to help my citizens instead of being a farmer – my country is in a bad situation, and I will help.”
A trainer and mentor during the eight-week course, Mircea said the key in teaching recruits to read is emphasizing that recruits need literacy to do their jobs which, in turn, makes them more equipped to provide safety and security for Afghanistan.
One recruit, Zabihullah Roshan, an ambulance driver and recent-graduate of the training program, said although he’d learned elementary reading skills previously, the class helped him understand more of what he was reading, and in turn, makes him a better ABP officer.
“If I work at the airport and someone comes with [a] passport, I can now know what it says,” he said.
“If I can’t read passport, I am no good as [a] police officer because they can enter my country,” Roshan added, referring to terrorists who enter Afghanistan illegally at border checkpoints and airports, which the ABP is responsible for securing.
More than enabling him to accomplish his basic security duties, reading and writing skills will also help Roshan inspire children learn to read, he said. An important reason for this, Roshan added, is that children often trust older figures of authority and thus he as well as other ABP officers have a chance to positively influence them.
“They trust us to make better security for Afghanistan,” he said. “We say they must have education so they can solve their own problems.”
Influencing children to build a better Afghanistan, however, is a long-range plan. The ABP’s immediate goal, per NATO’s desired end states, is to defeat and suppress the presence of terrorist networks. One of the ways that can be accomplished on smaller levels, Roshan said, is to teach Afghans to read, which will allow them to counter religious propaganda terrorist networks often use to recruit new members.
“[The terrorists] use people to fight their neighbors because they don’t know how to read,” he said. “We must work with them because when they have [an] education, they don’t let so many people use them.”
Already, in just two weeks of literacy training, Roshan has improved his reading skills and is passing them on to his family and in doing so, Roshan said he hopes to inspire others to join him.
“They are proud to see me in my uniform,” he said. “They also want to learn because it’s good for their country and themselves.”
Much like changing mindsets in literacy, ABP trainers are also changing mindsets in gender relations. In Afghanistan, which the New York Times columnist Nicholas Krisoff, in the book “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” identified as being among the troubled spots in which it is “dangerous to be a woman,” gender violence often got overlooked.
Partly because the Taliban ruled with an iron fist and readily punished any woman it saw as “impure,” and partly because law enforcement officers rarely, if ever, received training on gender equality, Afghanistan quickly shot up the priority list for women’s rights organization at the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom. In recent years, the Department of Defense, along with State Department, has also identified women’s rights as one of the major keys in rebuilding a more stabled Afghanistan.
With the new focus, ABP recruits also received training on preventing sexual assaults and domestic violence, Mircea said. Though the classes were crunched in with the two weeks of literacy training, Mircea said seeing gender violence from women’s perspectives is often a profound experience for the recruits.
“They’re surprised to hear that violence against women is unacceptable,” he said. “But they’re smart and are learning. When we show them pictures of women who were beaten, they have sad looks on their faces.”
In approaching such a subject – one that crosses cultural and religious barriers, trainers take great care in pushing forward women’s rights, while at the same time, ensuring that recruits understand they weren’t there to change the culture. Much like many non-government organizations that have, for years, worked in the human rights field, ABP trainers focus not on whether a culture is “right” or “wrong,” but rather, to bring awareness to recruits about issues that, for too long, have rendered Afghan women fearful for their lives.
“They learned about IEDs, drugs, weapons and some other issues, but they didn’t learn about violence against women,” Mircea said. “We’re here to show them.”
Much like many other efforts in Afghanistan, Mircea said it is too early to tell if the program will be successful. If the looks on the faces and actions of the recent graduates are any indications, however, the new training program is already a success.
Dressed in their newly-issued fatigue uniforms, ABP officers gave visiting guests and dignitaries a thumbnail-sketch of what they learned, running tactical drills in front of the crowd of about 100. Armed with the new ability to write and communicate, some also gave their e-mail addresses to visiting journalists, welcoming follow-up questions and requesting that journalists send them graduation photos. Though not each day of their career will be this peaceful or happy, nor will they always receive publicity for the hard and often dangerous work they engage in, ABP officers said they were ready for the task at hand – namely, to contribute to a nation that many of them grew up in and continued to love, despite hardship.
“I want to help my country, that’s why I joined,” said 39-year-old Aboul Malek, who previously worked as a farmer before he decided to join. “I wanted to help my citizens instead of being a farmer – my country is in a bad situation, and I will help.”
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