Connections&
December 8, 2002- Second Sunday of Advent 

  John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a       baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.   

       Mark 1:1-8
SCHOOL OF HOPE

     We have all heard the stories of the cruel repression of women in Afghanistan during the rule of the Taliban:  women forced into wearing the burqa, the suffocating cloak that covers everything but the woman's eyes; women treated as property; even young girls sold into slavery to pay off family debts; women forced out of their careers in medicine, education, and business; young women forbidden to go to school or attend universities.
     But today, a year after Afghanistan's liberation, the  stories of many brave women who quietly defied the   Taliban's oppression to make a better future possible for their country are being told.
     One such hero is Mrs. Zubeida, the wife of a doctor.  Mrs. Zubeida taught in a flourishing network of illegal, underground schools.  Mrs. Zubeida set up her school above her husband's office, secretly teaching hundreds of girls to read and write. When the Taliban would come to investigate, Mrs. Zubeida blamed the noise on her husbands patients.  When the Taliban got too close, she would change the time and place of lessons.
     Had they been caught, Mrs. Zubeida and outlaw teachers like her would have been severely beaten.  Their students, if found even with a book in their possession, would be punished, as well. 
     But she never thought of quitting.  "I had to help my country,"  Mrs. Zubeida says.  "The girls love to study.  They want [to be] educated.  They have lots of wishes and lots of hope."
[60 Minutes, CBS News, October 20, 2002]

CONNECTION:   Only time and education will bring real rights to Afghanistan's women, but brave women like Mrs. Zubeida who risked their own safety for the sake of their own students have preserved hope for millions of Afghan women.  These teachers are "prophets" in the spirit of Scripture, women possessing a vision of what the world can and should become and  giving themselves totally to the work of realizing that  vision.  Whether we possess the dramatic persona of  John the Baptist or the courage and skill of a teacher like Mrs. Zubeida, each one of us is called by God to be God's "prophet" - to "proclaim" with whatever talents and skills we possess the presence of God in the wastelands and barren places around us, to create highways of  God's compassion and justice to enter and re-create our world. ¦