Maryam: a Hazaras Study Abroad success story

Hazaras Study Abroad helped Maryam get a scholarship at Macquarie University, one of Australia’s top universities. She is pursuing her master’s in politics and public policy at the university’s School of Political Science and International Studies.

But in addition to academics, Maryam has also been very active in other things. She has helped two other Hazara girls study in Australia through the Peace Scholarship Program for Afghan Women. The students will likely join Maryam in February. Maryam, who has worked with the UN and various other governmental and nongovernmental organizations, was slated to speak at the recent Australian Hazara Youth Conference held in Sydney, Australia.

Here are some of Maryam's reflections on her life, education and future goals:

As a Hazara girl who grew up outside of her homeland and recently returned to assist in the reconstruction of my country, my life has been an ongoing struggle to understand and redefine my identity, and to use the experience and skills I have acquired to assist in achieving peace and equality in Afghanistan. My journey began when my family fled Afghanistan in 1985, when I was less than a year old, when factional fighting broke out among Afghan-Hazara parties. My family experienced the terror and confusion of the times, and like many others, they scrambled for shelter in other countries. Our path led to Pakistan and finally, Iran.

Throughout my life, my parents constantly emphasized the need to remember my home of birth, Afghanistan. They tried to develop a sense of being Hazara even though I had no firsthand knowledge of my place or of Hazara identity as such. My parents raised me with the belief that we should continually strive to touch the lives of other Hazaras who were around us. Thus, from a very young age, I have had a strong sense of identity as a Hazara and have felt duty-bound to use my skills, education and experience to help heal my devastated country of birth.

In primary school in Iran, my sense of identity was enhanced. As a foreign student, I faced discrimination and was denied many of the opportunities given to Iranian students. For example, only Iranian nationals were allowed to participate in the final country-level competition. However, instead of becoming bitter, I decided to rise to the challenge, and relied on my creativity and persistence to overcome the discrimination and find opportunities. Through this experience, I found a sense of identity growing within me, as well as a rising sense of empowerment in being able to face challenges. As a result of my efforts, my teachers gave me with the “Most likely to be an Afghan female leader” award.

In secondary school, I spent much time trying to determine what my future career would be. One day upon visiting the public library, I came across a book of philosophy that struck my interest. I opened the book and stumbled upon a statement of Descartes, a famous French philosopher, “It is not enough to be intelligent; what is important is how you make use of your intelligence.” This statement had a tremendous impact on me and as a result, I began reading the history of philosophy and in particular, work written by Descartes. At that time, I felt that having a strong vision of humanity could guide me to my ideals and help me to understand myself better. Reading humanities helped me to define myself in a more clear fashion, which allowed me to develop a stronger sense of identity – as a woman, as a Hazara, and as a student.

When I finished secondary school, I realized that the paths that existed for Afghan students in Iran were extremely limited. My father insisted that I study law because of future job opportunities, but I was convinced that I wanted to study social science. Even though I felt a duty to work in the interests of my country, I remained firm and finally my father came to understand my commitment to studying the social sciences. My time in university was astonishing and I learned to become familiar with a new world. I felt as though thousands doors were opening for me and I didn’t want to lose any chances or time. Since most of our academic sources were in English and Arabic, I challenged myself to learn both of these languages and I discovered that the one subject in which I excelled was English; I translated extra notes in my lessons and worked extremely hard to learn both conversational English and grammar.

Besides being involved in academic studies, I was also engaged in social activities that continued to enhance my sense of identity as a Hazara woman. While still in university, I was introduced to the Tehran UNHCR office and I had the opportunity to work as an Afghan Counselor in health and education projects. At the same time, I assisted in academic research analyzing the lives of Afghan refugees in Iran in the context of international law. Working closely with people to understand and improve the lives of my people kindled my own quest to better understand my own identity as a former refugee, as an Afghan living abroad, and possible solutions to the Afghan refugee situation.

Furthermore, with the help of two of my friends, I founded the first educational and cultural center for Afghan women in Iran, called Community-Based Rehabilitation. The center initially focused on providing English and computer courses for Afghan girls, but within six months, we expanded to provide short courses in teacher training and public health and training for social workers as well workshops and seminars about challenges in education for Afghan girls and communities. Founding this center is one of the highlights of my life, teaching me a lesson that I will never forget: that as an individual, my ability to motivate others can lead to concrete achievements. This initiative was a great motivation for other Afghans and encouraged them to keep and empower their small society in the refuge world and gave me the ability to fulfill my lifelong dream of making a significant impact on my society through civil service.

When I graduated in 2003, my family decided to return to Afghanistan. At the time, it was an impractical decision; however, we had been waiting for so long to return to our native land. However, returning to Afghanistan has only reaffirmed my hope of living in peace. Since my return in 2003, I have played a variety of roles in the peace process and in strengthening the framework of Afghan women’s participation in the political and social processes. I began by working as a journalist in the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. Soon after, I was recruited to serve as an advisor in DHSA (Development and Humanitarian Services for Afghanistan), a cultural and educational organization that provides teacher training projects for female teachers in the Central Highlands (Hazarastan). I then served as an Information Officer in the ICLA-Information, Counseling and Legal Assistant project with the Norwegian Refugee Council, (flyktninghjelpen) , where I worked with the civil society organizations and refugee and returnees’ groups and other stakeholders to advocate for refugees and address their problems. I was responsible for initiating the linkage between NRC Afghanistan and NRC Norway, INCOR project (Information and Counseling on Return and Repatriation), which contributed to the production of a fact sheet on this topic. I served in this capacity for two years. Currently, I work as an Information officer for the United Nation Assistant Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

Furthermore, I started challenging myself to continue my education in peace studies and fortunately my application was accepted by University of Oslo and I got a scholarship to do a Peace Research Course in Norway. It was an amazing opportunity for me to know more academic people who encouraged me to strengthen my academic background. For some personal reasons, I had to quite the scholarship and came back to Afghanistan. Before coming to Kabul I found HSA; it sounded like a very interesting community of my people and I became interested to be among Hazaras through this network. Once I saw an announcement of a scholarship in Australia called Peace Scholarship Program for Afghan women, It sounded an outstanding chance for me. I have started application again and finally I succeed to be accepted as the only Hazara Peace Scholar in Australia. When I came to Australia I found out that this program will have reception for one more group of Afghan girls. Since Hazara girls in Afghanistan are not familiar with the process of this scholarship, I started informing my friends who were capable and interested to continue their higher education. I helped them to go through the application process meeting scholarship criteria and fortunately two Hazara girls were accepted for this program in 2010; hopefully they will start in February.


As an Afghan/Hazara girl who has lived a refugee’s life for 18 years, I became familiar with some concepts earlier than most people - concepts such as war and peace, discrimination and justice, stability and instability – these were concepts with which I not only became familiar, but lived and practiced on a daily basis. As a result of directly suffering the consequences of war, I have in me a deep commitment to supporting peace. Clearly, studying Peace Research will play a critical role in my goals for the future. Specializing in peace studies will help me to develop my skills in conflict resolution and will strength my capacity to participate in Peace building process in my country. I have been transformed as a result of my work in Afghanistan, and I feel privileged to be here now, paying a debt to my homeland and being a part of that critical mass that will push the country into a period of peace and stability. I have devoted my life both to working to better myself and to improving and advancing my society’s level of understanding as whole. Throughout the rest of my life, I hope to continue with this unselfish work, and it is my belief that the skills and experience I will receive from my education and work experiences will empower me to continue making a difference in Afghanistan.

Living in Afghanistan has certainly taught me many lessons in peace. Even though many of our hopes for peace have not yet been realized, there are clear examples of paths being made towards peace. For such a long time, Afghanistan has been an example of conflict -- so shouldn’t it one day be an example of peace? For me, Afghanistan’s lessons in peace begin with people recognizing that as a people we may have different values, but that it is more important to focus on the unities among all Afghans.

In my opinion, one of the most important peace lessons that should be addressed is the strategic role of Afghan women in stabilizing the country. While gender issues continue to be explosive, Afghan women are increasingly able to step into leadership roles. The international community is extremely supportive of the political leadership of Afghan women; however, support for Afghan female leadership must come from within Afghanistan instead of being imposed in order to be feasible. To create sustainable progress, support for women’s rights and roles must be couched within Afghan culture, history and religion and in this regard, having women with higher education is essential. As Kofi Annan once specified, educating women is a crucial step in development. Afghanistan can prove to be the country that proves the truth of this assertion. Afghan women can create stability in their country - by building a network of support that will in turn helping women to find jobs, build important skills and achieve active political and social participation. I believed that when resources are given to women, these resources trickle down to the community at large and Afghan women have already demonstrated that they are incredibly resourceful. The international community should provide Afghan women with the tools they need to effect change, because they have the capacity to make those changes. If Afghan women continue to be supported, there will be a visible increase in the standard of living, which is critical to addressing the situation of conflict.