Arabia Felix Magazine The Legacy of a Precocious Schoolgirl: Raufa Hassan, Philanthropist By June 1, 2005, 06:00 There is a television crew waiting to do an interview. The crew is polite, attentive. There are young admirers, one from Britain, one from America, a girl and a boy. They.ve come to Dr. Raufa Hassan.s offices to help out somehow, or perhaps just to hear what she has to say. She says: gI think I was between eleven and twelve because that.s just right in the 7th grade. We were a few girls in the Bilqis School and we were not satisfied with our schoolbooks.h In their own school, she is saying, the boys had far better books, and far more of them. What to do? gI don.t know how it happened,h she continues, gbut somebody suggested we go see the Prime Minister.h Two of her friends said that they knew where the Prime Minister lived. So off they went. The year was 1971. The city of Sana.a was small then, and neatly self-contained. People who lived in houses outside the city walls might just as well have lived in China. The girls decided they would walk. They packed lunches. They wore their best shoes. It was Friday morning. They had a vague idea of where to go. Actually, they were going only to Bab Shaoub, which these days is not considered far away from anything but back then, things were different. Life was different. gWe were walking and there were gardens and fields and it was all green there. There were no houses. g Finally, the girls arrived at the house of the Prime Minister. He was out for a walk himself. The person who answered the door.there were no guards in that long ago time, and no explosion barriers. permitted the girls to wait in a courtyard. gHis name was Abdullah al-Kurshmi. When he came we were like seven girls waiting at the door. He asked us what is it all about. We had already written a request for the books on a paper. And we talked. And I remember he laughed.h He laughed but he also said, gYes.h In fact, he went further. He was so impressed with the girls. initiative and with their comportment at his house that he invited them to go to school with the boys. It was the first time that girls were permitted inside a boy.s school in Sana.a. According to Dr. Hassan, they were received normally, politely, like fellow students. Her world suddenly became the boy.s world. She respected them and they her. Suddenly, their future, with all of its possibilities, was open to her. That was in 1971. Since then, Raufa Hassan has gone on to a career notable for a certain kind of fearlessness. She was the first female television broadcaster in Yemen, and a powerful, not always easy-going voice on the radio. In 1991, she earned a PhD in Communications from the Paris and that same year, returned to Yemen to put her knowledge to use. In 1996, she founded the first Women.s Studies Center in Yemen, at the University of Sana.a and later founded a independent research and philanthropic center, now called the Cultural Development Foundation. She also founded the existing mass communications school in Sana.a and ran for Parliament. Under the auspices of her foundation, Dr. Hassan initiated a program of health education for young women between the ages of 11 and 17 that was designed to help girls understand changes occurring in their bodies. The program, because of the sensitive nature of the material presented to students, was the subject of considerable controversy in Yemen. Religious authorities thought the program detracted from their teachings and scholastic authorities, not used to such frank discussion, were suspicious. Nevertheless, Dr. Hassan persisted and over the course of two years, her program reached somewhere between 56,000 and 70,000 schoolgirls in Yemen. She is busy receiving guests in the office of her Sana.a research center. As the young woman from Britain watches with wide eyes, she describes her current work: first, of course, there are the interviews with magazine journalists and TV journalists to be gotten out of the way. Then it.s on to the more important things: gWhen I think something is wrong, I got to decision makers,h she is saying. gI ask for a change or justification or justice.h As she.s speaking, there.s an almost undetectable, girlish smile playing at the edge of her mouth. There.s a bit of mischief in it, yes. But there.s determination as well. At the moment, she.s energized about provisions in the Yemeni law that impinge on journalistic freedom. She.s organized a group of Yemeni reporters and interested NGO officers to go around to various ministries to lobby for changes in the relevant laws. The problem, as she sees it, is that freedom of expression, which is guaranteed in the Yemeni constitution, doesn.t mean much without free access to information. gI want this right to be guaranteed,h she says, gI want the law to guarantee this. This is about the ability of the public to make up its mind. It.s very basic. Because without information, you can express yourself, but what about?h As she asks the question, she seems genuinely perplexed, as if she.s just now come to terms with a silly, unjust classroom rule. She wants it changed, she says. Why on earth should things be this way, says her playful smile? As she talks, the TV journalists, the magazine journalist, and the visitors from abroad are listening to every word. Copyright © 2005 - 2007 Arabia Felix. http://www.arabia-felix.com