Face to Face: Young People and the Second Elected Government
Armanshahr Foundation’s 38th public debate (third year) GOFTEU: A bridge between the elite and the citizens, held at the P.E.N Centre in Kabul, was concerned with the issue of the young people in relation to the government. Most participants were young people.
Taking an unorthodox approach to the social and political conditions in Afghanistan, Rooholamin Amini said: “Father! I am different. Grandfather! You don’t understand me; Mother! Don’t insist that I should believe the fable of bad luck and the mischievous witch. I do not think like you in regards to such issues. You may blame it on my lack of respect or whatever else you wish. I cannot accept your statements without reason. I live in a world of reason and logic and cannot accept everything my father tells me without analysing them myself. He further continued: “These may be the heart-felt words of a dismayed young man in a sad society called Afghanistan, where he is acquainted with modern elements in a classical society, as a person, born in a traditional society, who wishes to carry the steel world in this glass container. Sometimes I wish I was still working on my father’s land in a remote village, away from the numerous preoccupations of society, politics and culture, and could go to bed every night looking forward to the day after, with a pride that I might consider ridiculous now. This is a wish that only a person disappointed with politics, culture, society, democracy, human rights and civil society may have; one who doesn’t wish to think, so that he would not suffer, but suffering is not normally the consequence of thinking. I live in a society where I know the more I think the more I will suffer. And that is a great pain.”
Dr. Abdolghayum Sajjadi, another speaker, said: “Our society is a traditional one and its basic criterion is what the patriarch of the community does. Surely there is no place for the young people in a society like this. There is a need for the young people to launch a persistent struggle to change it from a traditional to a modern society. In a modern society, all the various components have been defined, rights of all citizens have been defined; the young people occupy their deserving place in such a society. Thus, we must endeavour to move toward a modern society.”
As the last speaker, Ms. Zobaydeh Akram, offered certain proposals to improve the lot of the young people in the society, arguing: “We need a long time for the objective conditions needed for the establishment of modern institutions to grow. Hence, we should place more emphasis on the intellectual, scientific and rational aspects of the issue now.
• In the field of education, the nature of contemporary culture and civilisation as well as the native civilisation should be examined;
• The mass media should broadcast more programmes concerning the advancing conditions in the world and proper knowledge of civil and cultural values;
• Those issues should be discussed in clubs and literary and scientific circles of the young people.”
The meeting that had started at 3 pm ended at 5 pm after a snack and active participation of the audience in the question and answer session.
It is to be noted that the youth, students, high school pupils and young professionals raised certain demands to the next president of Afghanistan at the meeting and they agreed to discuss those issues at other meetings in subsequent days.
Invitation for 38th Goftegu Public Debate: Young People and the Second Elected Government
