Portrait of Courage

ARLDF.NET posted this update today, with some poignant insights into the heart of Cyd Mizell. Please pray for her family and the family of her Muslim driver, Hadi, who was also apparently murdered. This update really is a portrait of courage.

Update: Feb 28th, 2008
We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of concern expressed by many people following our announcement of the apparent deaths of two of our Asian Rural Life Development Foundation workers. Muhammad Hadi and Cyd Mizell were kidnapped Jan. 26 in Kandahar, Afghanistan. We continue to work with the Red Cross to receive confirmation of their deaths.

We remain puzzled over this entire situation. We cannot understand why our employees were targeted in this way or why they would be killed. ARLDF is a humanitarian development organization that works throughout Asia helping to provide a better quality of life for the poorest of the poor, mainly through community development projects. We work in about 12 Asian countries, with most of our programs focusing on small-scale efforts.

In the Kandahar area, our personnel work in education and projects that help people learn skills to better their lives and the lives of their families.

Hadi, a Muslim family man, had served as an ARLDF driver for two years. He had five children, ages 6 to 15. He was a threat to no one, only working to support his family.

Mizell, 50, had lived in Kandahar since 2005. She regularly wore the all-encompassing burqa, showing respect for the culture, and learned the local language to better communicate and help in humanitarian projects. She taught English to high school students and helped women learn income-producing skills such as sewing and embroidery.

“The women here make a beautiful, intricate type of embroidery called ‘khamak,’” Mizell wrote last year. “We have grown to love and appreciate this handiwork and would like to ‘show it off’ to others, as well as to help these women and their families improve their livelihoods. Many of these women rarely leave their homes, and it is not appropriate or helpful to pull them out of the homes in order to give them employment. Our project employs women to embroider small pieces of khamak in their homes that we hope will be useful and marketable.

“I’ve been able to help some with the design and production phase and I really love being able to work with these Afghan women. They are very patient and gracious with my [language skills]. It gives us lots of opportunities to laugh!”

Our prayers continue to be with the families of Hadi and Mizell. We regret we are unable to respond individually to your calls and e-mails of concern. Additional releases will be posted when more information becomes available.

Cyd Mizell: a friend of Afghanistan
As news spreads of the unconfirmed but widely reported deaths of Cyd Mizell and her Afghan colleague, Muhammad Hadi, many are asking:Why would an American woman live and work in one of the most dangerous regions of a country at war?

“Because she cared,” said Jeff Palmer, international director of the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation (ARLDF). “She loved the people of Afghanistan, and she devoted her life to meeting their needs and helping them rebuild their nation, which has experienced violence and suffering for many years.”

Mizell, 50, a native of Eureka, Calif., moved overseas to serve the people of Afghanistan. Since 2005 she had lived in Kandahar, where she taught English to high school students and helped women learn income-producing skills such as sewing and embroidery. She also assisted in other ARLDF-related efforts in the area, which include food-for-work projects, irrigation, rehabilitation, health care and restoration projects.

“The women here make a beautiful, intricate type of embroidery called ‘khamak,’” Mizell wrote last year. “We have grown to love and appreciate this handiwork and would like to ‘show it off’ to others, as well as to help these women and their families improve their livelihoods. Many of these women rarely leave their homes, and it is not appropriate or helpful to pull them out of the homes in order to give them employment. Our project employs women to embroider small pieces of khamak in their homes that we hope will be useful and marketable.

“I’ve been able to help some with the design and production phase and I really love being able to work with these Afghan women. They are very patient and gracious with my [language skills]. It gives us lots of opportunities to laugh!”

Mizell also tried to meet some of the needs of the homeless “tent people” – migrants from drought-stricken areas of Afghanistan who moved to Kandahar. Their poverty and hunger moved her, particularly the women and girls who seldom if ever left the dirty, torn tents they called home.

“She had the time and opportunity to go to a place where there was so much need to give to these girls who have so much potential,” said an ARLDF colleague who worked with her. “The high school students loved her. She was adored by teachers and students because of the spirit that she brought with her. She really loved them.”

Mizell, a gifted musician, began helping Afghan women even before she went to Afghanistan. She volunteered in the United States to teach English as a second language to Afghan refugees who had resettled there. She became increasingly interested in assisting the people of Afghanistan as that nation struggled to rebuild after years of war.

“I remember her telling me that she had volunteered to teach English as a second language and that several women from the Pashtun area in southern Afghanistan had come to her class,” recalled an American friend. “She was so excited because that was the very people she had decided she wanted to help. She did not go to Afghanistan out of any need for adventure. She just wanted to go where the need was greatest and where she could be of the most service.”In 2005 she joined the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation, a humanitarian organization that sponsors development work in a number of Asian nations, including Afghanistan. She won the admiration of many people in Kandahar for her work with them. Mohammad Gull, a professor at Kandahar University, described her as “a very patient and calm woman” who was “always thinking about Afghanistan's future.” Kandahar’s provincial governor, Asadullah Khalid, said she “trusted the Afghan nation and respected them.”

They trusted and respected her, too. That was vividly illustrated in the days following her Jan. 26 kidnapping when as many as 600 Afghan women in Kandahar met to appeal for her release -- a rare public display by women in the conservative area. Rona Tareen, director of the Kandahar Women's Association, urged Mizell's captors to free her immediately, saying she had helped Kandahar's women with small business projects."She was here helping the woman in Kandahar. She was trying to get their embroidery outside of the country," Tareen told the women — many wearing all-encompassing burqas — who gathered in a Kandahar wedding hall. "Her kidnapping is against our culture and tradition.”Another woman, Bibi Nanai, said she received permission from her husband to join the protest. "I came from my home to show my support," Nanai said. "We are very upset."Mizell was aware of the risks of working in Kandahar.

A few months after her arrival in 2005, Mizell wrote: “(T)he security situation here has been steadily getting worse …. One thing that has become very clear in recent days is that we have no guarantee of how long we will be able to remain in our city. So, I want to make the most of the time.”

She was able to remain for almost three years. Just a few weeks before she was kidnapped, she wrote:

“I would just like to say that I am very much at peace in being here. I have no desire to go anywhere else.”