Another heroic story we won’t see on national TV. So much of what we read about Islam may make you think they are a bunch of crazy people.
Wazhma Frogh may be a little crazy, but she is also one of the most heroic people I have read about in a long time.
From an article in the online Christian Science Monitor by Jim Carroll, http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0305/p13s03-lign.html :
“Just hours after Wazhma Frogh arrived in an isolated, conserative district in northeastern Afghanistan in 2002, the local mullah was preaching to his congregation to kill her. Ms. Frogh was meddling with their women with her plan to start a literacy program, he told the assembly.
As she walked past the mosque during noon prayers, his words caught her ear. Shocked, she marched straight into the mosque. In a flowing black chador that left her face uncovered, she strode past the worshipers and faced the mullah. Trembling she challenged him.
‘Mullah, give me five minutes.’ she recalls saying. ‘I will tell you something, and after that if you want to say I am an infidel and I am a threat to you, just kill me.’
She then rattled off five Koranic verses – in both Arabic and the local Dari language – that extol the virtues of education, tolerance, and not harming others. She criticized local practices of allowing men to use Islam to justify beating their wives, betrothing young girls, and denying women an education.
The room was silent. All eyes were on Frogh and the mullah. The the mullah rested his hand on her head.
‘God bless you, my daughter’, he said.
With that, Frogh won permission to start the literacy program that later helped women from Badakhshan Province to participate in local government and run for the national assembly. ”
Leaders will misuse religion, and other belief systems, to justify their programs that lead to abuse and violence. Christian leaders have done it, Hindu leaders do it, Atheist leaders like Russia’s Putin do it.
It’s courageous people like Wazhma Frogh standing up to this hypocricy that represents the faith of true believers.
6 comments
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March 6, 2008 at 7:05 am
ric booth
Very well said. Thank for this inspiring story.
March 6, 2008 at 11:03 am
edfromct
Thanks for the comment Ric.
Inspirational stories about heros like Wazhma Frogh don’t get the enough coverage in the main stream media. Crazy people like Osama ben Laden get all the press, and this shapes our view of the Muslim world.
I read the Christian Science Monitor because it is one of the few papers that provides a more balanced view of the world.
March 6, 2008 at 12:27 pm
darla
This is an awesome story! I wish the news showed the good as well as the bad…seems like the news causes more hurt and less help. I have seen another Islamic woman speaking out against radical islam as they misinterpret to benefit theirself, can’t remember her name but saw her on Glen Beck on night.
March 6, 2008 at 1:04 pm
mandythompson
yay Wazhma!!! wow…. she’s brave
March 6, 2008 at 3:31 pm
tam
standing firm on your convictions can be a risky thing. I’m glad she didn’t back down! How inspiring!
March 6, 2008 at 9:22 pm
1godsgal
How come the news always thinks the worst stuff is the best? If people were represented with honesty there wouldn’t be such mass confusion when it comes to the truth. A very brave woman.