CAPTAIN COOK— A local ohana is trying to bring a young woman back from Tajikistan to complete her education.
But besides bolstering the woman’s academic resume, a return trip would help Mehrangez Rahmatova, 19, avoid an unwanted arranged marriage.
“Under societal and financial pressure, her father ended her education and told her she must be married,” is how Pamela Wang, who hosted Rahmatova in 2012 when the exchange student spent her junior year at Konawaena High School, described the situation facing Rahmatova after she returned to her home. “Society urges early marriages, and babies are expected immediately, domestic violence is commonplace.”
Rahmatova came to the islands in 2012 through the State Department’s Future Leaders Exchange, or FLEX, program, where she spent the year with the Wang family, eventually graduating with a 3.667 GPA.
Rahmatova worked hard while she was here, Wang said, learning to swim, competing in judo and winning a speech competition in English.
At times the transition from a patriarchal state to the more open society of the United States was trying, Wang said.
Now, she’s hopefully on her way back, as the Wang family and others have raised money for her return, where she’ll attend Hawaii Community College-Palamanui.
Rahmatova has already been accepted to the college — she’s expected in Captain Cook by Dec. 13 — and she’s received grants and loans, but the money raised would go to tuition, books and living expenses. Wang is aiming to raise $10,000 for each year that Rahmatova will be going to college.
“Having seen what opportunities women can have, she was determined to keep up her studies,” Wang described in a gofundme account she set up for Rahmatova, which has already raised nearly $11,000.
One group spearheading a fundraising effort is Christ Church Episcopal in Captain Cook.
The church donated money and volunteered to serve as the clearinghouse for donations outside of the gofundme account, as Wang — who has hosted around 20 exchange students — does not want to touch the money for transparency reasons.
The church joined because “the story was so compelling,” said the Rev. Richard Tardiff, church rector.
“Obviously, she’s not a member of our church,” said Tardiff, “or even of our faith.”
Rahmatova’s homeland is located to the north of Afghanistan, and is one of the countries formed by the breakup of the USSR. The country remains the poorest in the former Soviet sphere, according to the CIA World Factbook. It is 85 percent Sunni and 5 percent Shia Muslim, with the remainder composed of other faiths.
But the parishioners came forward and asked to support her, Tardiff said. Most of the donors have never met Rahmatova, but felt this was a truly Christian thing to do, he said.
“This week is a great week to be talking about it,” he said, referring to the aftermath of the Paris terror attack and the polarizing debate over whether the United States should accept Syrian refugees.
“We’re hearing leaders call for screening people by their religion before we let them into the country. I think it’s a good thing that people in this community are opening our arms,” he said.
It’s important to reach out beyond our borders, he added.
Rahmatova — who didn’t respond to email due to unstable Internet access in her village — speaks both Tajik, the language of her culture, and Russian. She began to develop her knowledge of English as a girl.
In her application for the FLEX program, Rahmatova wrote about seeing a poster when she was 12 of one of the children who participated in the exchange.
“Honestly, I didn’t even know where America was at the time, but I wanted to be like the boy in the poster!” she wrote in the essay.
She studied English extensively and came here at the age of 15. Even with years of practicing English, speaking it constantly was new. But Rahmatova improved rapidly, Wang said.
Rahmatova’s essay called it a “shock” to go from the mountain village of 360 people where she had never left to the island of Hawaii.
She settled in with the Wang family, although there were a few adjustments.
As a way to fully integrate students with the family, Wang has them involved in chores. For Rahmatova, used to hand washing everything, the dishwasher and clothes washer were major developments.
The next day she was up asking, “Don’t you have any work for me?”
Wang had to explain that, no, the work was done.
The changes, while living in a home on a working ranch in Captain Cook, were both subtle and extreme.
Wang recalled seeing Rahmatova experience one of the extreme realizations about the difference in cultures when they were riding together in a car.
Rahmatova saw a woman driving one of the public transportation Hele-On buses and had difficulty grasping that such a possibility existed.
In that moment, Wang said she could see something change in Rahmatova’s mind. Here was concrete proof of the idea that anyone could do anything, despite what Rahmatova had grown up with.
Her country has 35.6 percent of its people below the poverty line, according to the Factbook. Electricity and indoor plumbing is concentrated in a few cities, leaving areas like Rahmatova’s village underserved. Women usually top out at 10 years of education, meaning very few go to college. Her father runs a concession stand in a gas station and her stepmother sews Tajik clothing. The home has a dirt floor, covered in part with carpeting. Two of the three rooms are made with sticks and mud.
“My stepmother and my whole village are against me going to college, but I have finally convinced my father that it will lead to better things for our family,” Rahmatova wrote in 2012.
But family finances could no longer support her and social pressure led to her arranged marriage. Until, that is, the two families came to an agreement that if expenses were covered, the aspiring student could return to pursue her studies — likely in the medical or economic fields.
Her goal is to attend a four-year college and the Wong family will host her while she attends Hawaii Community College-Palamanui. She’ll be attending the school from Captain Cook by bus, as the Hawaii driver’s license program requires a Social Security number.
Wang asks that any checks be made out to Christ Church Episcopal, with a note of the student’s name on it.
“I have been so overwhelmed at the support, coming from people who very likely never met this young woman,” Tardiff said.
Contact Wang: 323-2117 and pamelawang@hawaii.rr.com
Online: https://www.gofundme.com/rh5ed4z2