Location: Kabul, Afghanistan

Level of Training: (Level I – 2014)

About: 

My name is Sayed Jalal. I became interested in nonviolence out of personal curiosity and the need for peace in my society. My extensive research on M.K. Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King and Abdul Ghaffar Khan, and their nonviolent movements has a profound impact on my life. With this training, I am hoping to empower myself with state of the art knowledge of nonviolence to persuade illiterate people not to join the Taliban movement. The pressing issue in Afghanistan is the increasing volume of violence and a great need exists in our country and world for a comprehensive and coordinated approach to preventing and resolving violent conflict.

Correspondence on February 23, 2015:

Well to be honest things are very slow at my end, but given the current situation the slowness is not a problem as long as it is moving. But despite moving inch by inch we are expending, since I came back from the States we have started collaborating with people working in rural areas as a result we were able to find our foothold in most politically sensitive areas. However the prolonging election results culminated in government losing control to insurgents (The Taliban) in most of upper Laghman and Nooristan. We were frequently visiting local Shuras and providing them necessary assistance through our organization (Youth Relation Centre) in peace negotiations between local communities. The situation got really worst when we were threaten by the Taliban, at first we didn’t take it seriously but after they killed a Government employee and issued a formal letter, that compelled us to adopt defensive measure (I don’t know if it’s appropriate to tell you all this issues but I feel it’s good to give you a glance of reality in our part of the world).

Contact Information: jsaeedsh@gmail.com