Over 18 years after the United States launched operations enduring freedom and invaded Afghanistan, terrorism threat has ruled the worldwide debates about Afghanistan, and not much importance has been given documenting the impacts of climate change, food insecurity, and what that means for the future peace prospects. Afghanistan is among the most vulnerable countries in the world facing the effects of climate change, and one of the least equipped to handle what's to come.
Afghanistan's faced an extreme ongoing drought since 2018 that affected 2.2 million people. In the first quarter of 2020, more than 40,000 Afghans had to leave their homes due to natural disasters.
Women are among the most severely affected in Afghanistan as they rely on natural resources sensitive to changes in climate for their daily tasks, such as household water supply. Hundreds of girls—were pulled out of school by their families during the drought in agriculture-based regions. Insecurity and hunger-derived families fled drought to Internally displaced people camps around some big cities to marry off their daughters in return for a "bride price."
I started this project in 2019, focusing on general aspects of climate change in Afghanistan. I want to continue this project by addressing and focusing on the effects of climate on women and schoolgirls in farming families in Afghanistan. I intend to show that climate change isn't only an environmental Obstacle; still, it can lead to instability in Afghan women's livelihoods, education, and health, who are already vulnerable due to gender inequality.
My own family's life impacted deeply by climate change and war in Iran. On my mother's side, my extended family was born and lived in Sharafkhaneh Port on the coast of Urmia Lake in the north of Iran, once one of the largest salt lakes on the planet. My grandfather ran a lakefront motel, and my uncles were sailors. Lake has lost about 88 per cent of its surface area during the past three decades due to water mismanagement after the Iran-Iraq war and climatic changes. As Lake Urmia dried up, my family lost their jobs and migrated to other cities. I spent all my childhood summers on the shore of the salt lake. The port town is now a sparsely populated village that young people flee for nearby cities. Neither port town nor salt lake resembles the place of my childhood memories.
My personal experience of war and environmental changes led me to decide to work on stories and projects covering social, environmental, and political arguments, focusing on humans and their relationships with the environment.
There's also quite a bit of research saying that the best way to build resilience to climate change is to focus on girls and women. If I succeed in getting the grant, I hope this body of work can serve as an urge to implement the projects, expand women's role in agricultural production and natural resource management to combat climate change by reaching the international community like the UN women.
