Another NCC'er Reports on the War in Afghanistan

As a variation on the theme of last week's post, we have another article by an NCC'er--this time, Jeffrey Stern, the Center's International Engagement Manager. Stern Rights about Obama's plan for Afghanistan from a different perspective, that of its implications for the dispute between Pakistan and India. Check out Stern's article for Foreign Policy here

NCC Partner Reports on Afghanistan Surge for CNN

Nasim Fekrat was among the first partners the NCC worked with to launch our International Engagement Project. A young journalist, photographer, and blogger from Afghanistan, Nasim embodied the values the Center exists to promote. Nasim was a fellow at the Center's 2009 Peter Jennings Project, and is currently a full-time undergraduate student at Dickinson college. This week, he posted his take on President Obama's decision to increase the United States' presence in Afghanistan by 30,000 troops, which you can read here.

Talking About War

Our last post centered on comments as a means of exchange, leading up to the visit the Afghan students make to America. This week has seen a specific exchange of commentary that illuminates how casual, topical interface between students on any given subject can make way for exchanging more profound insights that prompt discussion on political, historical, moral, and philosophical issues.

Earlier in the month, an American student who maintains an active interest in military history asked the Afghan students at via the shutterfly site what their opinion was of the Taliban and the war on terrorism. The “Taliban is not just a threat for Afghanistan,” A Marefat student named Bismullah responded, “but for every nation in the world, that is why they have to be defeated, and I think this is the interest of all those who participate in the war.” He went on to argue that “war itself for tackling a group like Taliban is not wrong, but ways we selected strategies can be right or wrong and effective or not effective.” In other words, the ends justify the means—as long as the means are effective.

Bismullah’s opinion is informed by the community he belongs to. Marefat High School is made up predominantly of Hazaras, an ethnic and religious minority in Afghanistan who have suffered disproportionately under the Taliban, and would again be among the worst treated should the Taliban prevail in Afghanistan again. This is an engaging way to interpret the social, political, and cultural influences on the opinions of students in another country. That analysis can help students see how their own views are formed.

For the time being, Bismullah has posted his matter-of-fact answers to two of the most pressing contemporary political questions—one of which has been relevent for as long as mankind has been around, the other has only become an issue within the last several years. Can you justify war? And: does the Taliban constitute a threat to the international community, or is it purely a nationalistic movement, as it claims to be?

We’ll wait to see whether anyone disagrees with Bismullah’s opinions. Bismullah, for his part, hopes that someone does. “You are asking interesting questions, “he says. “Please keep asking such questions so that we can exchange ideas and views.”

The Importance of Exchange

One of the most immediately rewarding and informative aspects of Being
We, the People is the students' exchange of commentary. Though all
students have been strongly encouraged to post comments on the
Shutterfly site, they've never been obliged to by any mechanism; it's
not a requirement for completing the project, they're not graded on
comments, and there is no extra credit they might earn. Instead, when
American students have questions about Afghanistan, we've reminded them
that there is a rich resource at their disposal--their counterparts in Afghanistan-who are eager and able to answer questions. In addition to cultivating the skill and inclination to actively seek out answers, this method has helped the students develop an understanding of "human capital," the resource their partners can be to them, and they can be to their partners.

The progression in the commentary's subject and tone is informative in
its own right. As the students have become more comfortable with the
project, their comments to one another have become more substantive. At
the outset, students' comments were rarely deeper than their approval of
a given image. The teachers in both Philadelphia and Kabul encouraged
the students to begin employing the photography skills and nomenclature
they were learning to evaluate each others' images, and soon students
were posting evaluations that touched on concepts like "the rule of
thirds" "sense of moment" and "framing." As the students became
comfortable being critical of one another's work, they extended their
comments to include questions of context-about what the photographer had
wanted to say with the image, rather than merely what it looked like.

Now, it's no longer just photographs inspiring comments, but comments
inspiring photographs as well. Students are asking eachother
questions--how are people with mental disabilities cared for in your
country; how does the Taliban and the war on terrorism effect your
life?--and in so doing, inspiring eachother to go out and find or enhance
their answers. The conversations have sparked ideas of new themes, and
the students have agreed to try to take photographs of, for example,
mental health care in their respective countries, after becoming
interested in how it compares. The students are beginning to understand
the respective benefits and drawbacks of "showing" versus "telling." And
more importantly, they're learning the history and culture of another
country, as told through the eyes (and words) of that country's youth.

Being We, the People in Your Classroom

Plans are underway to create a curriculum that would better enable your students to replicate the remarkable work achieved by students at Constitution High School in Philadelphia and at Marefat High School in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The Center is working closely with educators from both schools, as well as professional curriculum developers to allow your students to add their experience to the diverse narrative of what it means to be a citizen of the world. Through a variety of activities and writing prompts, students will be encouraged to think about their own experience in regard to the six themes addressed in the project; myself, religion, work, participation, expression and commerce. After considering the themes, students will be sent out into their communities to document their experience through photography. Ultimately, students will then consider the ways their experience compares and contrasts to students from around the country and world.

This is sure to be an excellent service-learning project for students interested in compartive democratization and documenting their experience as part of "We, the People."

Until the curriculum is finished, be sure to keep up with the project on http://www.beingwethepeople.shutterfly.com/ and the Center's website, www.constitutioncenter.org/international

This Week in Being We, the People

For this week's photography class, we tried a different approach. Instead of picking a core project theme like "expression" or "religion" as we’ve done every week before, the American students looked at some of the photographs the students in Afghanistan posted, and discussed how we could capture similar images, of similar subjects, and expressing similar themes, in their communities.

A photograph of adobe-style mud brick houses on a hill in Afghanistan with an industrial development inspired discussion of "old meets new" and some of the students decided that to capture the same theme here in Philadelphia, they would go to housing projects, where new construction often stands in stark contrast to the older buildings next door. A panoramic view of the City of Kabul drew a suggested photo with a similar view of Philadelphia. (Insert comparison photos if possible)

When reviewing Afghan student photos and suggesting a title, American students were asked how they’d take a picture to fit the same title. And every time a student suggested how she might take a picture to express the same theme, she was asked to articulate that theme; to suggest a title. In this way, the students have begun thinking critically about not just the composition but the context of the photographs, and as importantly the similarities and differences that exist between their peers in Afghanistan.

For the next week they will shoot only subjects that could fit an existing title, but within that interpretive space, gave them the freedom to do so however they choose. We’ll see the immediate results next week in the photographs they return with and their explanations of which shot from Afghanistan inspired them. But the ultimate result of conveying the differences between two societies while searching for the similarities is a skill that can be cultivated and serve a critical thinker well for the rest of their life both academically and socially.

Race to the Finish in Afghan Elections

Afghanistan is moving forward in its electoral process, holding a run off election between incumbent Hamid Karzai and challenger Abdullah Abdulla. President Hamid Karzai failed to receive the required majority of votes when the U.N. declared one third of votes invalid. The August 20 election was the second election held in Afghanistan under the Constitution of Afghanistan. There had been talk of a power sharing deal between the two competitors, and the creation of a coalition government. However, that has been overturned in favor of the run-off election.

This is a great time to discuss comparisons and contrasts between Afghanistan and the United States, and provide your students with a deeper understanding of the world at large.

One way to accomplish this is through the Photo narrative of Being We the People, a photography exhibit by students from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Kabul, Afghanistan. The images can be found at beingwethepeople.shutterfly.comAsk your students to draw comparisons between the photos, as well as the countries at large.

You can then discuss with students the current events surrounding the elections in Afghanistan, and different methods of determining a winner when a tie occurs.

You can then ask your students “What happens in the United States when there is a tie for the presidency?” Many may not know. Your students can read Article II, section one of the Constitution, for the answer. This scenario played out in the election of 1800, between Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Aaron Burr. After this election, the Twelfth amendment was passed, changing the way Presidents we elected. However, the role of the House of Representatives selecting the President, with one vote per state, remains the same. A tie for the presidency occurred only one other time, under the twelfth amendment, in the election of 1825, between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Ask your students to express their feelings on this issue – do they agree? How would they determine a winner in the event of a tie?

This Week in Being We, the People

This week saw more interesting parallels, as students eight and a half time zones away from each other continue to capture the same themes in their respective communities. As an example, in order to show 'expression," a Constitution High School Student went to a tattoo parlor and photographed a customer. When Marefat students uploaded their most recent photographs, several depicted a young woman painting a traditional henna tattoo onto her hand, in preparation for celebrating Eid, a Muslim holiday.

It may seem at first that tattoos in the two cultures are used for completely different reasons-here to establish individuality, and in Afghanistan, to conform to a religious tradition. The images themselves confound this notion, though, as the young Afghan women in the photographs do not appear somber or pious as they apply and display the decorations on their hands, but rather genial and expressive. And of course, when one considers how many in the West use tattoos to demonstrate their faith, the photographs seem to be depicting a similarity rather than a difference.

The most informative point of comparison, however, may in fact be between the Eid photographs and the earlier photographs taken by the Afghan students themselves. The red celebratory ink on the young women's hands in the photographs from Eid contrast sharply, not only in color but in purpose, with the dark purple ink voters have on their fingers in the photographs the students took of Afghanistan's elections.

This Week in Being We, the People

Early in the project, a Constitution High School student photographing a rally for healthcare reform took a photograph of a young man holding a sign that said: “Radical Fact: 0% of Europeans want American-style healthcare.”

Last week, one of the Afghan students submitted a comment on the shutterfly page that asked “do you have any proof for this sign?” In class we debated how to respond. The sign was clearly intended to be rhetorical, and the sign holder was not purporting to make a literal, statistically verifiable statement. The Afghan student, however, had interpreted the image as a demonstration of the photographer’s own opinion, and as such, requiring some corroboration. The American students began discussing the difference between reportorial photography and documentary photography, and about the ethical obligations associated with each. Harvey Finkle pointed out that this was an example of how much power the photographer has to inform, or, on the other hand, to mislead. Even though “every picture tells a thousand stories,” stories aren’t always true.

After class, the American students went on Shutterfly to explain their approach to the Afghan student. One student wrote:The photograph shows that here in America u have a right to protest and exchange your ideas and opinions with others. lol so to answer your question, he doesn`t really need proof because he`s kind of joking to prove a point.

Another added:This picture is not to prove that the information on the sign is correct. It is to show peoples freedom of expression and how people have the freedom to give their opinions

Regardless of whether the American students are able to successfully convey the context of the photograph in question, the exchange has been illustrative of the power images have to represent, protect, and sometimes to distort the democratic process.

This Week in Being We, the People

Students in both Kabul and Philadelphia have been hard at work. The students are now focusing on one theme per week to document through video and photography. This week, students examined "Commerce" and the results were remarkable.

After the class explored the various meanings of the theme, and where "commerce" is found in the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the U.S. Constitution, students went into their communities to document their personal interpretation of commerce.

The students in Philadelphia and Kabul have begun to share their insights on the project and each others work on Shutterfly at http://www.beingwethepeople.shutterfly.com/

Over the next week, students are considering the various interpretations of "Expression." In class, students were asked to consider the following questions:

What various forms of expression are protected in the Constitution?

How do you express yourself?

How do people express themselves without using words?

Based on the discussion that took place, this week's pictures promise to be the best yet.

This week in Being We, the People

Friday, September 11, 2009

This week in "Being We, the People"
A few weeks ago, Afghanistan held its second national exercise in democracy since the fall of the Taliban. On the day of an anxiously-anticipated election, while reports of fraud, violence, and ballot box stuffing emerged from other parts of the country, one polling place saw a peaceful casting of ballots.

That polling place was Marefat High School, where thousands of voters came to choose their candidate, emerging from the school proudly displaying fingers stained with the ink that ensures one person one vote. When night fell the voters shuffled out, and as election monitors converged on the classrooms to count ballots by flashlight, yelling out results—Hamid Karzai! Hamid Karzai! Ramazan Bachardhost! Hamid Karzai!, Ramazan Bachardhost!”—a new noise became audible: The click-click of camera shutters. Marefat students, newly equipped with their Canon digital cameras and Flip camcorders, documented everything that transpired as their school was transformed for a day from an institution espousing democratic practices to one that housed them. For many students, this was the first election they’d ever seen or participated in, because they were either still in exile or too young during the elections five years ago, and it was an opportunity that almost slipped through their hands. Before the election, the government announced a ban on media at polling places, reasoning that negative coverage would limit turnout.

The government lifted the ban at the 11th hour under pressure from the international community and members of the press, so at Marefat, the students learned they would indeed be allowed into their school with their cameras.

While the votes were tallied, the new documentarians crept along the corridors of their school and into the classrooms commandeered by election workers. Though many students couldn’t yet figure out how best to shoot in low light, the photographs from the day communicate the students’ fascination with the democratic process, and yes, it might also be said, with the cameras in their hands.View the student photographs at beingwethepeople.shutterfly.com

Discussion Questions:

Is your school used as a polling place during local or national elections?

How are your students involved in elections?

How can your students capture what it means to be one of We, the People?

Harvey Finkle

Friday, August 28, 2009


The Being We the People: Afghanistan, America and the Minority Imprint project has taken the cooperation of numerous people across an ocean. Students and teachers from Marefat High School in Kabul and Constitution High School in Philadelphia, along with staff from the National Museum of Afghanistan and the National Constitution Center, blogger and photographer Nasim Fekrat in Afghanistan, and acclaimed photographer Harvey Finkle in Philadelphia have been working together diligently.

Finkle is a documentary still photographer who has produced a substantial body of work concerned with social, political and cultural issues. His work has been extensively exhibited and published, including three books entitled, Urban Nomads, Still Home: Jews of South Philadelphia, and Reading.

His recent work includes a documentation of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU), a poor people's movement emanating from the most impoverished neighborhood in Pennsylvania; and The Jews of South Philadelphia, interviews and photographs of the remnants of what once was among the largest Jewish communities in the nation. Finkle also took a contingent of Philadelphia students to a Cambodian temple in South Philadelphia where they were able to conduct interviews and take photographs.

Finkle continues his work with various communities in Philadelphia by being Fekrat's counterpart stateside, taking on the role of teaching Constitution High students how to use their cameras, the techniques of photography and how to interpret the themes of the exhibition into powerful images. The results will be fascinating with the students on both sides of the ocean in such capable hands.

Discover Harvey Finkle's work at http://www.harveyfinkle.com/

Nasim Fekrat

Freedom of speech. Apart from yelling "fire!" in a crowded movie theater, the Constitution has endowed Americans with the right to say whatever we want. Daily, we read op-eds and blogs criticizing the government and scouring various members of it across the coals. No reporter fears for his life if he chooses to call the President's policies short-sighted or unwise. Papers even go so far as to endorse some political candidates over others. Not so in Afghanistan. In fact, the concept of independent media in a country so enmeshed in religion is difficult to imagine. A fact which is not surprising since anyone who speaks out against Islam, or the governmnent which supports it, can be in danger of losing his or her life. And even if there were papers available not influenced by political parties or special interest groups, in a country where over 70% of the population can't read, who would buy them?

Nasim Fekrat, a 25 year-old self taught journalist and photographer has come up with an answer. He has gone to the internet and taken advantage of the independence its media provides. With just his computer, he is able to send his thoughts on the state of his nation to a much wider readership. People beyond the borders of Afghanistan can read his words and know his plight and the plight of his people. He truly believes that blogging will change things, and it is in that spirit that he founded the Association of Afghan Bloggers whose mission it is to recruit more bloggers, to send more Afghan voices to travel the world wide web.

The National Constitution Center's own International Engagement Manager, Jeffrey Stern met Fekrat while working a two-year stint as a freelance journalist in Afghanistan. Stern saw the power of citizen journalism first hand, and upon returning to Philadelphia joined with the Center to further projects like Fekrat's to burgeoning democracies around the world. It was in keeping with this pursuit that the Being We the People at the Center and Beyond project came into being.

Fekrat is extending his talents as a teacher and motivator and photographer to the students of Marefat School. No stranger to the power of images, he is teaching them to use their cameras to be journalists covering their own lives to, like him, send pictures of their plight across the planet to museum visitors in Philadelphia who will hopefully carry those images with them beyond the walls of the Center.

Constitution High School

If there is something one can find in abundance in Philadelphia, in addition to great food and raucous sports fans, it's history. A fact many native Philadelphians perhaps take for granted, but never ceases to amaze its visitors, is that it's difficult to walk the streets of the city without seeing a blue sign indicating a noteworthy event that happened there. While returning a library book at 7th and Market Streets, one can happen upon the site where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. The city is bustling with remnants of the past, and a few steps down the street from the Jefferson landmark, unbeknownst to many who walk past it daily, is a place that is making history today--Constitution High School.

A unique partnership between the private and public sectors, CHS is the first school of its kind in Pennsylvania. The Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History, the National Constitution Center, Ballard Spahr Law Firm, and the School District of Philadelphia have come together to create a school whose entire curriculum is centered around American History and is hinged on the principles of democracy and U.S. government. As a result, instead of school rules or a student handbook, CHS has drafted its own constitution. In lieu of policies being handed down from on high by administrators, the school has pioneered a ground-breaking school government model, that divides the school into the three branches of government--the House of Students, the Faculty Senate, and the Executive Branch comprised of the principal and student body president. Through the process of democratic deliberation, all components of the school act together to generate policy that works for everyone.

Students from Constitution High School, who attend classes in the heart of a city that was pivotal in the birth of this nation, are the ideal candidates to provide a stark contrast to those attending Marefat. CHS students pass the mural celebrating Abraham Lincoln's 2nd inaugural daily, casually lunching under the words, "With malice toward none, with charity toward all," while their female counterparts in Kabul have only recently regained the right to even attend school.

It is with these Afghan students that the Philadelphia students will participate in the Being We the People project. One can expect their photographs and interpretations of freedom to vastly differ from one another. However, perhaps what the resulting exhibition will actually show us is how similar these young people really are despite the thousands of miles and years of life experiences that separate them.

Marefat School

The Farsi word marefat is a difficult one to translate to English. There is not a single word that conveys all of its subtle nuances. It is a noun, a quality that one can possess. If an individual is described as having much marefat, he or she can be best characterized as being extremely knowledgeable, considerate, aware, even ethical. A person with marefat is wise and has a capacity for understanding that is beyond that of the average person. Knowing this, it is appropriate then that Marefat is the name of a school in Afghanistan that teaches classes such as Humanism in the Renaissance.

It is in the rural outskirts of Kabul, in an area populated mostly by Hazaras, a Shiite ethnic minority, where Aziz Royesh decided to build his school. Spending most of his youth fighting during the Soviet occupation of his country, this 39 year-old Afghan man made it his mission to show the youth of Afghanistan, some of whom remember nothing but civil unrest, a different way.

The Hazaras are a people which have a long history of persecution in Afghanistan, even during times of peace. But it is in a small, previously bombed-out building, donated and renovated by the goodwill of many, where they are now learning notions that many of them have not actually witnessed in their lifetimes. Concepts like democracy, civil disobedience, and basic human rights, of which many of them, and their parents, and their parents before them have been deprived.

It is arguable that these children have been training in the art of marefat for their entire lives, striving to understand the unstable and often unkind world around them. Through their participation in Being We the People, it will be captivating to see how, armed with a camera, they will portray the world around them--one that is vastly different from, and in some ways, surprisingly similar to that of their counterparts in urban Philadelphia.

For more information, visit http://beingwethepeople.shutterfly.com/ and read more about Aziz Royesh and Marefat School in Trudy Rubin's column here.

Being We, the People at the Center and Beyond

The National Constitution Center proudly announces a new education program and exhibition focusing on civic photography entitled, Being “We the People:” Afghanistan, America and the Minority Imprint.

Students from Constitution High School in Philadelphia, PA and Marefat High School in Kabul, Afghanistan will collaborate on the exhibition that will be hosted at the National Constitution Center and the National Museum of Afghanistan, as part of the Center’s International Engagement Project. The Project is dedicated to establishing international exchange and promoting constitutional principles to emerging democracies through educational and civic learning initiatives.

To launch Being “We the People:” Afghanistan, America and the Minority Imprint, the Center has provided students from CHS and Marefat High School with the education and equipment they need to conduct documentary photography. The students will use photography to explore how minorities in different types of democracies perceive themselves as citizens, and how they define the concept of citizenship. Students are guided by six themes, which they can interpret how they choose. The themes are: work, religion, participation, expression, commerce, myself. The themes were drawn from the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution and sections of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Each day this week we will introduce you to different contributors to the project. Beginning September 4, you can follow the project's progress each Friday here on the International Insight Blog and on Shutterfly, where many of the students’ pictures will be posted.This is an exciting educational endeavor and we hope that you will be as interested as we are to discovering what these remarkable students will produce. Tomorrow, we will meet Marefat High School in Afghanistan.

To learn more, visit the Center's press room by clicking here.