From Kabul to RomeMUN2013, with high hopes for future

Behind the 1200 participants of the Rome Model United Nations fourth edition, all of them young people who share a common interest in multilateral diplomacy and who are eager to make their voices heard on the most important issues of international importance, there are hidden experiences, dreams, ambitions and different life stories.

Among them there is Yalda, 22, from Afghanistan, studying Economics in the third year at the Kardan Institute of Higher Education in Kabul. ” I am well aware I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to get an education. In Afghanistan women are still seen as inferior beings and deprived of many fundamental rights. In the Capital, the ability to study is also extended to girls, but the problem persists in the provinces, where there are no teachers and training centers, and parents prevent their daughters from going to school.” Particularly attentive to the situation of women, Yalda defines burqa ”an example of patriarchal control, a form of subjection that is not in any way present in the spirit of the Qur'an and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad.”

This young Afghan girl, immersed in the daily life of a country that has experienced three decades of instability, conflict and war, and who is still searching for its path to democracy, tells us about her life with extreme optimism: "The situation is calm now, sometimes there are explosions, but I'm sure things will be better. I also chose to participate in the project to tell something about my country and to share my views with young people from all over the world. My contribution to make Afghanistan better, despite being small, has a great value to me. If all my brothers and sisters will make their contribution, each drop will build a true river of change. I believe that Afghanistan has a great future ahead and all it takes to be a united and peaceful country."