Sunday, March 8, 2009

Rangina Hamidi

From the Star:
"Afghan-born Rangina Hamidi spent most of her life in the US and is a naturalised American citizen. The graduate from the University of Virginia in women and religious studies gave up her cushy life in the US in 2001 to return to Afghanistan to live and work on empowering women there.

She admits it is not easy being a woman in Afghanistan at this time. Still, she finds it empowering as she is able to bring changes almost on a daily basis.

For her, it is a mistake for the outside world to associate the Taliban with Islam.

“Taliban are not the guardians of Islam and never will be. The Muslim world has a responsibility to show the world there are many varieties of interpretation in the religion, ranging from the most conservative and closed to the most liberal and open,” she said.

Rangina stressed too that her people do not see the Taliban as a religious movement as Afghanistan was a Muslim country centuries before the Taliban even came into existence."

Rangina hopes that by seeding the ground now, the future will see growth.

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