EVERETT — The first Afghanistan official to visit the Northwest since the fall of the Taliban spoke to more than 150 Everett Community College students Tuesday, urging them to support expanding educational opportunities in his country.
"Education is the backbone of our nation. Without education, we are not going to get anywhere," said Ali Asghar Paiman, Afghanistan’s deputy minister of planning and a professor at Kabul University.
Paiman also met with community college leaders in Everett and Seattle to discuss establishing an exchange program to train Afghanistan’s teachers here and offering management training to Afghanistan’s leaders.
Today, he meets with state legislators in Olympia and will later visit Washington, D.C., and the United Nations headquarters in New York.
He came to Everett at the invitation of Aziz Sadat, a Monroe man from Afghanistan who’s working to improve the country’s schools and economy. Sadat translated for Paiman on Tuesday.
Paiman told students that the transition to peace in Afghanistan has been successful, noting that economic growth topped 30 percent this year and the country expects to approve a constitution in December.
In addition, four million children are attending school, and 40 percent of students are female, he said. Little education was available while the fundamentalist Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1997 through 2001.
"The country is coming back very quickly," Paiman said.
International support still is needed, he said. Schools lack essentials such as chalk and chairs, and most textbooks are decades old.
That hit home with EvCC freshman Trisha Selby, 17.
"That’s amazing to me. Quarter to quarter we change textbooks here," she said. "What he had to say was really interesting, and I’m glad he came."
Paiman said Afghanistan continues to need security and economic aid, too, and thanked the United States for its help in rebuilding the country.
"The U.S. and the international community cannot forget Afghanistan because of the fight against terrorism and the drug trade there," he said.
Paiman also thanked EvCC speech professor Mark Murphy for visiting Afghanistan this summer to teach.
Without education, "democracy will not be successful, and a peaceful solution will take longer," he said.
Murphy showed students photos of his visit, including a shot of a market where Osama bin Laden shopped.
"It’s a coup to have someone of (Paiman’s) stature visit our students and our community," Murphy said. "Afghanistan is not just a place in the news. It’s a land in transition."
This was Paiman’s first visit to the United States.
"The gift I will take back with me is in the past 25 years in Afghanistan I have seen nothing but war and destruction," he said. "Here, I see people smile" and experience joy and prosperity.
He added, "When I go back home I will speak with a different voice because of what I have seen and what I have done."
Reporter Katherine Schiffner: 425-339-3436 or schiffner@heraldnet.com.
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