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The delegation of 22 female Afghan government officials and civil society leaders who took part in the Perspectives on Democracy program at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. Four went missing before their scheduled return to Afghanistan.
Four Afghan women went missing while on a three-week educational program in the United States, a spokesman at the University of Virginia said Monday, and federal authorities reportedly are looking for them.
The women were among 22 Afghan female professionals studying the rule of law at the university’s Center for Politics, which was hosting the program in partnership with the California-based nonprofit group Relief International. It was sponsored by the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and ran May 21 to June 6.
"In the course of that at a certain point, Relief International told us that two women had left the program," said Kyle Kondik, spokesman for the Center for Politics at the university. "Later in the program, two others left overnight."
The group, made up of teachers, professors, lawyers, judges and leaders of non-governmental organizations, was staying at the Cavalier Inn in Charlottesville and was picked up each morning for excursions and presentations on U.S. history, government, rule of law, pluralism, freedom of expression and workplace practices.
Federal officials are looking for the women, The Associated Press reported, citing a State Department source.
The other women in the program departed the United States on schedule.
A news release issued by the university said the women chosen for the program were using Afghanistan’s nascent legal system to protect the rights of women and children against abuses like forced marriage, child marriage, domestic violence and exploitation of children.
"Little by little, we are making a difference," said Hamida Saidi, a public defender who was among the Afghan delegation.
The group was the third of four Afghan delegations that originally planned to take part in the Perspectives on Democracy program at the University of Virginia, which was founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819.
"The fourth — we don’t know if and when it is going to happen,” said spokesman Kondik. "That depends on what the State Department decides."
The State Department did not immediately respond to calls seeking information on the missing women.
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If I was a woman living in Afghanistan I wouldnt want to return there either. To be treated as second class and lower in life than a man in that caveman mentality of Afghanistan would be inhumane. To be used as chattel and sold into marriage is demeaning. Too bad they resorted to becoming an illegal alien in the USA. I suppose their disappearances show their desparation. No woman should be treated as they are in Afghanistan.
Boy I would sure have a hard time turning them over to the authorities in the event I encountered any of them.
Poor women simply don't want to go back to their repressive homeland.
I certainly hope that that's all it is. I hope they dump their repressive religion as well then.
Mebbe they got a lot of help from thaa CIA or thaa Fast n' furious gangland peeeople?
We found them...they are being sent to Cuba as presents to the poor people being held against there will.
You go girls!!!!! They've experienced the 'help' that the US offers in their country, like the fact that the majority of prisoners in that country are women, imprisoned for being raped and attacked with acid. They probably have a chance of doing more good for their fellow countrywomen from the US then Afghanistan where they are threatened with prison and/or death on a daily basis. These women have lived in the trenches and who would be better qualified to deliver the truth about the double edged sword of fighting for women's rights in a country while male US senators fund their male countrymen all the while chanting their mantra of; women and children be damned, we will finish the Afghan Oil Pipeline and defend if for the Oil Robber Barons..... Mission Accomplished!
They've obviously decided to start hitchhiking around the galaxy.... I mean they already had their towels
Why do I think they made themselves "disappear?" My first thought was that they have no desire to go back to a place and treatment they clearly disagree with. I'm having visions of Robin Williams standing in Macy's saying, "I defect." I'd "disappear" too if I was from there.