Afghan Youth Debates: Nothing Foreign About Democracy

Afghans should stop seeing the democratic process as a suspicious Western import, according to writer Amir Shah Kargar.

Kargar was addressing students from the Sheikh Zayed University in the eastern Afghan province of Khost, at one of a series of events IWPR has run this month to encourage young people to use their votes in next April’s presidential and provincial polls.

Instead of viewing democracy as part of an alien culture, people needed to recognise the fact that it conferred equal rights on everyone.

Sabawun Storai is a student in Khost, eastern Afghanistan.

This report was produced as part of Open Minds: Speaking Up, Reaching Out – Promoting University and Youth Participation in Afghan Elections, an IWPR initiative funded by the US embassy in Kabul.