Young Montclair woman on Africa Peace Corps assignment

Most people watch news about the world's trouble spots on television, but Vida Tehrani works there.

The 23-year-old Montclair resident left Oakland on June 8 for a Peace Corps assignment in Burkina Faso, where rebel soldiers recently went on a shooting-and-looting spree. That doesn't scare Tehrani. She was evacuated from Niger in January after al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) kidnapped and subsequently killed two French men from a restaurant near the Peace Corps office in Niamey, the country's capital.

"The restaurant was down the street from the hostel where we stay when we're in the capital city, so they decided to evacuate everybody," Tehrani said. "But it wasn't like we were ever in danger or felt unsafe."

The volunteers were initially evacuated to Morocco and then were sent to Egypt, where the protests that deposed former President Hosni Mubarak were in full force. They stayed in Cairo for two days before being shuttled off to a more peaceful coastal city.

"It was really interesting," Tehrani said. "We didn't think it was going to be quite as crazy as it was. We had to fly back out of Cairo, and we were worried we wouldn't be able to fly because of the curfew. They cut the phone lines, and the Internet wasn't working, but we made our flight. "... It was kind of exciting to be right there in the midst of all that."

In Burkina Faso, Tehrani's assignment is to empower girls through education, sports and community

services.

"There's not a lot of encouragement for girls to go to school," said Tehrani, a 2009 graduate of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. "A lot of families want to marry off their daughters while they're very young. They don't understand the importance of education when the girls could be working to help support the family by selling potatoes at the market."

Tehrani's job is to make parents and the community aware of how education can benefit them, to gain the girls' confidence and to develop projects together. Burkina Faso -- which is surrounded by Niger, Mali, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo and Benin -- is largely Muslim.

"Some of the families misinterpret the Quran. They think it says girls shouldn't go to school, but the Quran says you should educate everybody," Tehrani said. "Families often think, 'If I send my daughter to school she's going to lose her religion or become a prostitute,' but those are myths."

Tehrani was familiar with the Quran long before she got her Peace Corps training. Her father, Montclair Rug Gallery owner Mozey Tehrani, has a Muslim background. Her mother, Jane Moseley, is English and grew up as a Protestant. Tehrani says she is "spiritual" but does not practice any particular religion. Her education in cross-cultural management and international development prepared her to live and work in many different countries. She speaks Farsi, French and a couple of local African languages.

Tehrani said she will miss her parents, but she's excited to go back to Africa.

"The local people are so generous and kind, despite the fact that they don't have very much," she said. "This is the first place I've ever been where they really love Americans."

Source: http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_18289938?source=rss_emailed

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