Learn the story of two PARSA Afghan Scouts who escaped the Taliban and joined one of Scouting USA’s oldest troops.
Your donation helps ensure that these two young women have stable and secure futures.
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Tabasum & Fatima are from different parts of Afghanistan, but they were both leaders in their respective Afghan Scout troops. Before the Taliban, Scouting was a coed activity, with girls and boys chapters connected to local schools.
Afghan Scouts are especially service-oriented. As a young scout, Fatima organized the creation of a school library from the ground up to meet the needs of a local school with limited access to books. She was also second in her class of 3,000 students. Top in scholarship and top in service, Fatima and Tabasum both earned excellent reputations in their local community.
What was their crime? Intelligence, academic prowess, and unwavering community to their community through Scouts.
When the US Army withdrew from Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly re-took the government. In the very first hours of their control, girls were banned from going to school and women of all ages were forced to withdraw from society.
As a young female leader in the community, Tabasum was at special risk. The Taliban hunted her (and her mom, a high-ranking government official) with plans to send her to a re-education camp or marry her to a Taliban fighter – to demonstrate their total control of society and make sure “Westernized women” were purged from Afghan society. Across the country, Fatima faced a similar fate because her uncles were high-ranking military officers who aided the US Army.
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Tabasum and Fatima both escaped Afghanistan with the help of their families. They lived in limbo for almost 2 years before they were accepted on scholarship at the Emerson Waldorf School (Chapel Hill, NC) and granted student visa.
Coming to the USA is wonderful, but also extremely hard. They left everything behind in Afghanistan and started over in a new school, a new kind of society, and in a new language. But they have advanced fast, with the help of many generous people, they’ve become fully fluent in English, closed big knowledge gaps at school, and earned 3.9 GPAs in their first year at the Emerson Waldorf School (as 10th graders). Tabasum plans to join the robotics team in next year and Fatima plans to play soccer (and less guitar).
The girls haven’t seen their moms or families for more than two years and probably won’t for some time.
When Fatima first talked to her new host parents, they asked: “What do you want to do in the United States?” Her immediate reply: “become the first Afghan Eagle Scout.”
Both girls are passionate about continuing their journey in Scouting through Scouting USA. They immediately joined Troop 39, one of USA Scouting’s oldest and most prestigious troops. The girls advanced two ranks in less than one academic year and plan to advance to Life Scout by Winder Honor Council. They are both on track to become Eagle Scouts before graduation.
Fatima is working as a counselor at Camp Meriwether (Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta) and Tabasum is attending the Muslim Scout Jamboree this summer (sponsored by the BSA Sam Houston Area Council).
Legal fees for asylum, a necessity to ensure their future, are a significant hurdle.
Textbooks, uniforms, and the everyday costs of starting anew add to the burden.
This is where you come in.
Tabasum and Fatima both hope to attend medical school and become doctors. They both want to return to Afghanistan to rebuild their country, but only once it’s safe for women. In the meantime, they will need to earn college scholarships to make college possible. They also need to find a more secure standing in the United States than student visas allow.
