April 30, 2009, South Hadley, Mass.: The Advocacy Project (AP) university chapter at Mount Holyoke College will host a talk Friday (May 1) featuring Sadiqa Basiri Saleem, a Holyoke senior and prominent advocate for education in Afghanistan.

Ms Basiri Saleem, who lived as a refugee in Pakistan for 18 years, began her work in 2002 when she started informal classes for 36 girls in an abandoned mosque in her home village of Godah, in Wardak province. Last year, her organization, The Oruj Learning Center, supported the education of 2,870 girls in six schools.

Ms Basiri Saleem will discuss how her project evolved into a nonprofit organization; the economic, political, and cultural challenges in Afghanistan; as well as her future goals for the education of women in her home country. After graduating from Mt Holyoke in May, she plans to return to Kabul.

On Friday, she will be joined by Mary Moore, who worked at Oruj a few years ago through AP. Ms Moore will discuss her experience in Afghanistan and her work in bringing education to Afghan girls during the Taliban rule. Ms Moore is now the US Director of the Oruj Learning Center, in addition to being a journalist.

The talk, which will take place in Dwight Hall from 4 to 5 p.m., is free and open to all. Refreshments will be served.

AP’s Mt Holyoke chapter, the first of its kind, was started in the fall of 2008 by Hibba Al-Adawy, who interned with AP in Washington last summer.