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October 22, 2002: Pioneer - Sadeed: "Focus Should Not Go to Iraq"
Speaker: "Don't Forget Afghanistan"

Afghan Native Suraya Sadeed, founder and executive director of Help the Afghan Children Inc., spoke at Bemidji State University on Monday about the history of Afghanistan. She stressed the importance of education in helping the afghan people.

By: Sherri Richards, Staff Writer October 22, 2002
Now, after the events of Sept. 11, 2001 and the ensuing U.S. attacks on Afghanistan, she is speaking at universities across the country about the importance of helping this country, and the role education should play in rebuilding a nation. Sadeed was at Bemidji State University Monday and today. Sadeed was born and spent the majority of her adolescence in Kabul. She earned a degree in child psychology there, but left in 1977 to enroll in graduate-level courses in Beirut, Lebanon.
"My heart is still there," Sadeed said. "Afghanistan has never been a rich country, but it was a free and happy country. It was very peaceful. People were going about their lives, there was none of the madness like has been going on there now."
She was unable to return home after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, and came to the United States as a refugee in 1982. "I became a citizen of the United States by choice. I love the United States of America and what it represents," she said. Sadeed said the Sept. 11 attacks on America realized a long-time fear of hers. Although she is happy the Taliban has been taken out of power, she wants people to be aware that Afghanistan citizens are not the terrorists.
"That nation has been terrorized itself for so long," Sadeed said. "Afghanis themselves know the pain of New Yorkers looking at Ground Zero. All of Afghanistan is Ground Zero." Through a series of pictures, Sadeed showed the pain and suffering of the Afghan people. Seventy percent of Afghanistan has been destroyed by war.
Sadeed has traveled to Afghanistan 19 times in the past nine years, and will visit there again at the end of this week. One of these visits was in December during U.S. air strikes. "In spite of the war and uncertainty, I saw a glimpse of hope in the eyes of so many for a better future," she said. This better future must come through education, Sadeed said. "It's an investment that we will never lose and the rate of return on this investment is a world of peace," Sadeed said. She said the future of Afghanistan is underprivileged and impoverished children who have never lived a life other than war and terrorism.
For 30 years, there has not been a formal education system, and for the last seven years, it has been illegal for girls to received an education. But this process will take time. "It took 30 years for Afghanistan to get where it is. I'm sure it will take a little longer to get back on the road of recovery," she said.
Sadeed said schools need to be built, and the infrastructure of the country and its government must be rebuilt for peace to reign. If the country is left in a weakened state, Sadeed said terrorist groups could regroup there.
"I have this fear that Afghanistan will once again be yesterday's problem because now our focus has shifted to Iraq," she said. "It's not because the problem has been solved in Afghanistan; it's because we want to think the problem has been solved in Afghanistan."