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2006年VOA标准英语-Culture Divides, Beauty Unites in Kabul

时间:2007-04-13 06:59:45

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(单词翻译)

By Penelope Poulou
Washington
28 June 2006
 
Watch culture report

It has been five years since the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The political and cultural status of Afghan women has improved radically1, especially in the cities. Change came slowly, with a lot of help from outsiders. A remarkable2 example was the work of western hairdressers who volunteered their time and talents in 2003 to teach their trade to women in the city of Kabul. In the process of improving others' appearances and self-esteem, the teachers also learned important lessons from their students.

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Afghan woman hoping to attend beauty school   
  
Like the other five women of her group, Terri, a self-assured, decisive woman, had to assert her way into the male-dominated Afghan society to set up the Beauty School of Kabul.

Kabul's devastated3 infrastructure4, its poor security, and the refusal of Afghan men to work for women hampered5 the volunteers' efforts to open the school on time, but the real heartache came during the selection process. Hundreds of Afghan women descended6 upon the tiny school, hoping to get one of the 20 seats available for students. 

 
Sima Loudin Calkin 
  
Sima Loudin Calkin, an Afghan-American hairdresser from Virginia, said, "I went back after almost 23 years. I could never believe I would be able to go back."

But first she had to face the haunting scars of war through the torn and tattered7 walls of Afghanistan's capital.

"It was very emotional," she said. "The country was the same … not the same … the people were different. The sadness. The devastation8. Everything was burned and destroyed. And imagine, in 25 almost 30 years, if they didn't bomb it, they didn't fix it."

"A lot of us sit there and talk about Afghanistan, and I realize now, I didn't help with anything," she continued. "I feel so guilty."

Sima did help. She has lived in the United States for the past 20 years and speaks both English and Pashto fluently - so she could help both sides communicate.  And that is no easy task. 


Debbie from Indiana  
  
Debbie, a hairdresser from Indiana, hit Kabul like a typhoon. She told her class, "You're stuck in a rut, guys. You're stuck in a hole of the past that you can't get out, and my God, before I leave here, you're getting out of the hole."

"It doesn't feel any different to me than being in Indiana," she said. "I just feel comfortable here, which means I'm absolutely out of my mind. You know what I mean, there are some places you feel at home and this is one of them."

The rest of the volunteers did not feel as comfortable as Debbie - or with Debbie for that matter. One of them is movie director Liz Mermin, who went to Kabul to film a documentary about the beauty school.

"I thought she was going to get us all killed,” she said. “She's there, she's big, she's loud, she's cracking jokes that are in some questionable9 taste, when you're surrounded by all these men, and yet, watching her negotiate Kabul was kind of fascinating."

While most Afghan men looked at the brash western women with mockery or loathing10, Afghan women eagerly listened and learned, and applied11 the information in a way that would work in their culture.

One Afghan woman spoke12 through a translator, "She says that her husband is aggressive, her children are aggressive, when she goes home she has to cook, she has to clean and she has to give dinner."
 

Sheila from Virginia  
  
Sheila, an American from Alexandria, Virginia, said,  "Tell her she has to do meditation13 before she goes inside the door of her house." She has her own spa in Alexandria. Her specialties14 are meditation and spiritual healing.

"She says, how can this meditation help me? So, I said 'before you open the door, stop. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. You know this is me talking.' This is the na?ve American speaking such horrors I can't imagine," Sheila said. "And who lives a life that's so difficult. And I'm telling her to breathe!"

Sheila spoke of one Afghan woman, "You see her always with a tie and a man's clothing," she said. "She was rebelling. She was saying I can do what men can do. That was her way. And she put the burqa over that." 


Liz Mermin  
  
For Liz Mermin the greatest victory of Afghan women is their economic emancipation15.

"I think that for the woman to be able to go out and support the family is a great way to get over gender16 prejudice," she said. "Because as much as you want to control your wife, if you can't feed the family, pay for your home, then a lot of your dealings about women not working will fall away."

This newfound freedom, however, carries a heavy price.

Mermin said, "That same woman who's saying she makes ten times what her husband makes is also scrubbing  the floors on her hands and knees and cooking the lunch and takes care of the kids while her husband is sort of chatting with us in the background."

Whether they are caring for their kids in a tiny Kabul apartment, cooking every night in a remote Afghan village, or fixing a friend's hair in the comfort of an American home, women are women no matter where they are.

Sheila said, "We all want the same things. We want to feel good about ourselves. We want to be attractive to our husbands, we want our children to respect us, we want basic things. We want a roof over our head. We want food in the stomach of our children. We want good education for them. There's really no difference what's going on here in Alexandria, Virginia and what's going on in Kabul in the midst of a family unit, a woman, a provider."

Looking back, most of these women feel their visit was a shocking but rewarding experience - one they would have never undertaken had they known the fierce challenges awaiting them. Still, as movie director Liz Mermin says, there is no better way for the west to learn about Afghanistan, its people, and its culture.

"If they have a chance to hear stories about the country that make them realize that Afghans aren't any different from us, it makes it much harder to see the headlines about the bomb going off somewhere or the Taliban coming back, or sectarian fighting and not feel a bit of a wrench,” she said. “I hope this is something that you would pay attention to instead of turning onto the next page."

Liz Mermin's documentary The Beauty School of Kabul, premiered recently in the United States


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1 radically ITQxu     
ad.根本地,本质地
参考例句:
  • I think we may have to rethink our policies fairly radically. 我认为我们可能要对我们的政策进行根本的反思。
  • The health service must be radically reformed. 公共医疗卫生服务必须进行彻底改革。
2 remarkable 8Vbx6     
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的
参考例句:
  • She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
  • These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。
3 devastated eb3801a3063ef8b9664b1b4d1f6aaada     
v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词);摧毁;毁灭;在感情上(精神上、财务上等)压垮adj.毁坏的;极为震惊的
参考例句:
  • The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
  • His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。
4 infrastructure UbBz5     
n.下部构造,下部组织,基础结构,基础设施
参考例句:
  • We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
  • We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设,发展各类群众文化。
5 hampered 3c5fb339e8465f0b89285ad0a790a834     
妨碍,束缚,限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The search was hampered by appalling weather conditions. 恶劣的天气妨碍了搜寻工作。
  • So thought every harassed, hampered, respectable boy in St. Petersburg. 圣彼德堡镇的那些受折磨、受拘束的体面孩子们个个都是这么想的。
6 descended guQzoy     
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的
参考例句:
  • A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
  • The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。
7 tattered bgSzkG     
adj.破旧的,衣衫破的
参考例句:
  • Her tattered clothes in no way detracted from her beauty.她的破衣烂衫丝毫没有影响她的美貌。
  • Their tattered clothing and broken furniture indicated their poverty.他们褴褛的衣服和破烂的家具显出他们的贫穷。
8 devastation ku9zlF     
n.毁坏;荒废;极度震惊或悲伤
参考例句:
  • The bomb caused widespread devastation. 炸弹造成大面积破坏。
  • There was devastation on every side. 到处都是破坏的创伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》
9 questionable oScxK     
adj.可疑的,有问题的
参考例句:
  • There are still a few questionable points in the case.这个案件还有几个疑点。
  • Your argument is based on a set of questionable assumptions.你的论证建立在一套有问题的假设上。
10 loathing loathing     
n.厌恶,憎恨v.憎恨,厌恶( loathe的现在分词);极不喜欢
参考例句:
  • She looked at her attacker with fear and loathing . 她盯着襲擊她的歹徒,既害怕又憎恨。
  • They looked upon the creature with a loathing undisguised. 他们流露出明显的厌恶看那动物。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
11 applied Tz2zXA     
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用
参考例句:
  • She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
  • This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。
12 spoke XryyC     
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
13 meditation yjXyr     
n.熟虑,(尤指宗教的)默想,沉思,(pl.)冥想录
参考例句:
  • This peaceful garden lends itself to meditation.这个恬静的花园适于冥想。
  • I'm sorry to interrupt your meditation.很抱歉,我打断了你的沉思。
14 specialties 4f19670e38d5e63c785879e223b3bde0     
n.专门,特性,特别;专业( specialty的名词复数 );特性;特制品;盖印的契约
参考例句:
  • Great Books are popular, not pedantic. They are not written by specialists about specialties for specialists. 名著绝不引经据典,艰深难懂,而是通俗易读。它们不是专家为专业人员撰写的专业书籍。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 文学
  • Brain drains may represent a substantial reduction in some labor force skills and specialties. 智力外流可能表示某种劳动力技能和特长大量减少。 来自辞典例句
15 emancipation Sjlzb     
n.(从束缚、支配下)解放
参考例句:
  • We must arouse them to fight for their own emancipation. 我们必须唤起他们为其自身的解放而斗争。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • They rejoiced over their own emancipation. 他们为自己的解放感到欢欣鼓舞。 来自《简明英汉词典》
16 gender slSyD     
n.(生理上的)性,(名词、代词等的)性
参考例句:
  • French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语,所有的名词都有性。
  • Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

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