Six of his students have already been injured in the war between Israel and Hamas that has ravaged the Gaza Strip, but the American educator is not losing hope. Kamal Ahmed is coordinating a plan to evacuate 250 women from Gaza to ensure they can continue their education.
The founder of the Asian University for Women (AUW) in Bangladesh was in Dubai while travelling to Ramallah to finalise the details of his initiative.
“All their documents are ready, and they have all been personally vetted by all parties involved. However, I am facing some challenges. I hope to resolve everything by going to Ramallah and getting the girls out quickly.
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He explained that a fully scholarship that included the cost of travel, stay, and tuition, among other things, was offered to bright and talented Palestinian women. “They had to be in the top 20% of their class,” he said. “Of course, it is self-reporting because you cannot verify in a war. They must be over 18 years old and have parental consent. We also asked our Palestinian alums to conduct a short interview on WhatsApp. As you can imagine, that was a challenge because of the internet connectivity there.”
This is not the first time that AUW has opened its doors to women in conflict zones or distress. To date, the university has enrolled several women from impoverished backgrounds, including nearly 300 Rohingya students and 500 students from Afghanistan. It has also offered admission to several women who work in Bangladesh’s garment factories. The university also expects to expand into Yemen significantly.
The AUW story
Founded in 2006, AUW offers a residential undergraduate program in the liberal arts and sciences with plans to establish several graduate schools. The university was founded to offer affordable education to women of all backgrounds and started with just 127 students.
According to the university website, roughly 85 per cent of its students are on scholarship support, with many being the first in their families to attend a university.
Kamal said that designing the university curriculum was a challenge. “We created an elastic preparatory program,” he said. “So the student could come in for two years or so and prepare and then go into the university. Many of these young women don’t have prior education or enough academic preparation to succeed at university. So it is important to give them the base.”
So far, the university has graduated more than 1,600 students, with many of its alums pursuing graduate degrees in Ivy League universities like Oxford and Cambridge. “
Success stories
One of the success stories that came out of AUW is its graduate Lucky Karim, a Rohingya youngster who has now become an outspoken women’s rights activist. Resettled in the US, Lucky spoke before the U.S. Congress about her experiences facing atrocity crimes in Myanmar in September last year. She provided her testimony to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission during a Congressional hearing on human rights in Myanmar.
Other success stories involve garment factory workers in Bangladesh. “We go on Fridays when the factories are closed and tell these women to take this test because if you don’t take it, you’ll never know,” said Kamal. “Maybe a small fraction of those who take the test actually get in. But for those who get in, it transforms their lives. Some of them are setting up their own factories.”
To provide more education to women, the AWU is now working on a large construction project to build its permanent campus.