環(huán)球英語 — 220：Peace in Afghanistan
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Thank you for joining us for today’s Spotlight. I’m Ryan Geertsma.
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And I’m Ruby Jones. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
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Boxing is one of the most violent sports in the world. Think about it – two people try to hit each other with their closed hands. Could anyone imagine using boxing to encourage peace? And yet one organization has decided to do just that! It is called Co–operation for Peace and Unity, or CPAU.
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Today’s Spotlight is on CPAU and the ways they are fighting for peace in Afghanistan.
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Afghanistan has suffered wars for over twenty–five [25] years. Sometimes foreign powers have invaded the country. But often the struggles have been civil wars – different groups of Afghan people have fought each other to gain power. From 1996 to 2001, a group called the Taliban ruled Afghanistan.
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The Taliban claimed to make laws that kept their religious beliefs. But many of these laws were very extreme – they did not agree with Islamic beliefs. Under the Taliban, boys and girls could not play together. Young girls could not attend school. People could not listen to music or watch television.
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There were also many laws to restrict women. Women could not work or go to school. They had to cover their bodies from head to toe, even their eyes. They could not go out of their homes without a male relative. Life under the Taliban was very hard, especially for women.
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The wars affected Afghan culture and tradition in other ways. For example, it became difficult to solve conflicts in traditional ways. The violent attacks on communities destroyed many legal documents and killed many people. The wars destroyed strong communities and relationships.
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Even children learned violence in schools. Each of the governments in power used education to spread their political ideas. The CPAU website gives an example: “1 gun + 2 guns = 3 guns. This is how our children learned mathematics during the war years.”
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Co–operation for Peace and Unity – CPAU – began in October of 1996. It works in five [5] provinces of Afghanistan: Badakhshan, Ghazni, Wardak, Kabul, and Kunduz . Even under the rule of the Taliban, the people in CPAU wanted peace for their country. Together, they work for peace, social justice, and human rights. They work to build a culture of peace, through training and education programs. It is common for violence to continue even after a peace agreement is made. So CPAU works to teach individuals and local communities about good conflict resolution and lasting peace.
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One way that CPAU is building peace in local communities is by re–teaching children. CPAU believes that peace education can change the violent culture. The organization designed teaching materials to do that. These materials encourage people to get involved in bringing peace into culture and community. The materials aim to change the children’s ideas and the way children relate to other people. CPAU trains local teachers to go into schools and work with the children.
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Another way CPAU has been working for peace is by teaching adults new ways to deal with conflict. CPAU set up Peace Councils in places that had damaged community structures – places where systems of leadership needed rebuilding. These Peace Councils are similar to Afghanistan’s old Shura tradition. Shura is the gathering of the community leaders to solve problems and local conflicts. Traditionally, only the community’s older men came to these meetings. But the CPAU Peace Councils include everyone. This way, all the members of the community have a voice.
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CPAU teaches the community leaders listening skills and ways to reach a compromise. It also teaches conflict resolution methods. By giving these resources to the people of the community, CPAU hopes to reduce violence and change how people deal with conflict. It believes that the community’s involvement will bring peace and lasting results.
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So CPAU tries to combine traditional methods of settling disputes with modern methods of conflict resolution. This mixture has proved to be effective in many villages. For example, the Peace Council ended a dispute between four [4] villages about a water project. The Council gathered a few people from each village. It then set up a series of meetings to decide the result. In the end, the project continued, but they improved the design, so that it would bring water to all four villages.
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When the Taliban lost their power in 2001, a new government was established. In this new government the law states that men and women have equal rights. But it will take time for the culture to change in Afghanistan. CPAU wants women to have more self respect and confidence. This is why the CPAU started classes to teach women boxing. And it wants to teach peaceful conflict resolution at the same time.
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So how can a violent sport like boxing help bring peace to Afghanistan? Well, these classes are an example of peace – because they bring women from all parts of Afghanistan together. The women are not divided by differences that have separated them in the past. They exercise and work together peacefully. But boxing is not the only thing that the women do when they are together. The women also discuss ways to end conflicts without violence. By boxing together, they are fighting to end war.
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One of the boxers describes her experience this way:
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“If you get involved in sport then you stay out of war. In the past there was war between different peoples in Afghanistan, but a sport like boxing brings people together. It is not fighting. It is a competition.”
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CPAU thinks training women to box is a good way to affect culture. Kanishka Nawabi is the head of CPAU. He thinks that the women set a good example because they do boxing for sport and for peace, not for violence. He says,
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“Afghanistan has been through a very violent conflict and sport was not separated from this process. What we are trying to do is to support and encourage peace for this group, as a model for culture. Yes, these women do boxing, but not for violence.”
