Gayle Lemmon, author of the bestselling “The Dressmaker of Khair Khana”, wrote in today’s
USAToday about the impressive, yet neglected progress that Afghan society has made since 2001. She highlights:
- A communications boom that has seen cellphone penetration top 50% —up from barely a blip a decade ago.
- A thriving, independent regional and national news media.
- 2.4 million girls in school, from fewer than 10,000 in 2001.
- Nearly 3,000 nationally accredited midwives, up from 250 in 2001, who teach women to deliver babies more safely.
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is a contributor to Kauffman’s work expeditionary economics, the deputy director of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Women and Foreign Policy program, and editor at large at Newsweek and The Daily Beast.