Acid attack on schoolgirl in Afghanistan inspires area teen's fundraising effort

The images of a teenager maimed in an acid attack simply because she was going to school sickened Mina Saudagaran of Tacoma.

Then they motivated the 15-year-old Annie Wright School student to stand up for the girl across the world.

On Nov. 12, Shamsia Husseini was walking to school in Mirwais, Afghanistan, when a man on a motorcycle stopped and asked if she was going to school. When she said she was, he yanked off her burqa and splashed acid in her face. That same morning, 14 other students and teachers of the Mirwais School for Girls were attacked.

New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins told that story, and, two months later, the bigger one that grew from the incident: The girls went back to school.

Shamsia, like most of her 1,300 schoolmates, refused to be intimidated.

“My parents told me to keep coming to school even if I am killed,” Shamsia, 17, told Filkins. “The people who did this to me don’t want women to be educated. They want women to be stupid things.”

Mina was going through The New York Times looking for a speech topic when she came across Shamsia’s story, and the photo of her burned face.

“It was the picture of a girl not much older then myself,” she said. “It was just so shocking to see what those girls have to endure to get an education.”

It was 7:30 p.m. on a school night, and the odds were against reaching Filkins, but Mina called The New York Times newsroom and asked to speak to him.

He was a few more time zones away, but Mina was given his e-mail. Mina wrote to him that night, offering to help.

“I heard back from him the following morning,” Mina said. “That was encouraging.”

Response to the story had been good, Filkins wrote. People wanted to give money to the school, and to Shamsia for further treatment. He planned to set up a Mirwais School Fund account when he returned to New York, and she could send contributions to that.

“The girls need every cent,” he wrote, “and I am sure they would be thrilled to know that someone from the outside world cares about them. It isn’t often that any one of us can change a life, so I will take great care.”

That was Jan. 29. By early February, Mina had set up a Project Shamsia account at Columbia Bank. She had invited her family and friends to support it.

“I believe that those of us who are blessed with the opportunities that come with living in the United States can positively impact the lives of young women like Shamsia,” she wrote.

Many of them agreed.

The first round of letters garnered $2,000.

Combined with the $21,000 sent to the New York Times, that was a good start. Filkins estimated Shamsia’s treatment might cost $7,000, and that the remaining money might buy a minivan to transport girls to the school.

Anything more could go to pay for fuel for the van, or school supplies for the girls.

It would be impossible to imagine the Mirwais School for Girls having too much money. The school is so crowded that girls go to class in tents inside the walled compound.

So Mina asked for money again, this time reaching out to friends at Annie Wright School.

“My goal is to get to $3,000,” Mina said.

As of Tuesday morning, she’d raised $2,300, said her father, Shahrokh Saudagaran, dean of the University of Washington Tacoma Milgard School of Business.

He believes Mina is building more than a fund for girls she will never meet.

In Mirwais and Kandahar, the Taliban is preaching hatred of America and oppression of women.

The money Mina has raised will educate and protect girls. They and their families will know that it came from Americans.

Mina is giving us the chance to work for peace on a personal level.

Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677

kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com TO CONTRIBUTE

Annie Wright School will accept contributions and mail for Project Shamsia at 827 N. Tacoma Ave., Tacoma, WA 98403.