Cheryl Ray was a Peace Corps volunteer in Afghanistan in 1971-72. Her site was Bamiyan, where the Buddhas were blown up by the Taliban just last March. In September 2001, Ray was the last American aid worker in Afghanistan. She left the country Sept. 10.

Gina Aaf, 24, is a young woman born in Afghanistan whose family fled the country as refugees and eventually immigrated to the Pacific Northwest. She is now a masters degree candidate in geography at the University of Washington and, through Seattle’s Peace Action, speaks widely about the conditions in her homeland and the effects of American war action on life in Afghanistan.

Both women recently spoke to South Whidbey residents in two separate programs at the Whidbey CyberCafe in Clinton.

Ray described her relief work in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime. After her Peace Corps service, Ray had continued to visit Afghanistan on buying trips for oriental rugs and antiques, until the Russians invaded the country in 1979. It was not until August of this year that she returned to the country.

“When the Buddhas got blown up, I decided I needed to get involved again,” Ray said.

She became a volunteer for a U.S. based non-governmental organization, Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Support for Afghanistan (PARSA), which sponsors income generation projects for women, women’s medical clinics, and underground homeschools for girls. She was in Peshawar, Pakistan and Kabul for a month previous to the attacks in the United States.

She entered Afghanistan a few days after all other aid organizations had been shut down.

“This left me the sole American aid worker in Afghanistan,” Ray said. Her visits to PARSA program sites were limited by Taliban decree, “and none of us had the audacity to defy them,” she said. “Homeschools and women’s weaving projects were out, as I was forbidden to visit private homes,” she said.

She did visit PARSA’S women’s clinic, and went to the bazaars each day.

“Everyone had a story of terror,” Ray said. “Everyone. They would tell me their stories and say, ‘This is not Islam. This is not what God says. I am a good Muslim and this is not the way.’”

Ray left amid her own terror, with her translator beaten in an attack by 10 men as she attempted to apply for an exit visa.

“The theory as to the true problem was that I had probably unknowingly walked into one of bin Laden’s office buildings, as he controls the commerce of Afghanistan,” Ray said.

She was, in fact, able to leave Kabul and was in Peshawar on Sept. 11. The next day she flew back to the United States.

In her Whidbey appearance, Ray spoke about PARSA as well as about the effects of “our war and our bombing” on the organization’s programs as well as on the country’s politics.

“There was a lot of momentum in the south to topple the Taliban from within,” she said. “The bombing interrupted all that. I couldn’t believe they started bombing so soon.”

GINA AAF has similar sentiments about the American bombing of Afghanistan.

“There is no popular support for the Taliban,” Aaf said. “They feel it is a foreign force, like the Soviet Union, a puppet government. There’s no way they’re staying in power.”

Aaf, who still has family in Afghanistan, visited the country during the past year, accompanied by her mother and an uncle, because two women couldn’t travel alone. And although she wore the burqa, the required covering for all women in public, she says “It doesn’t define who I am.” It further stereotypes Aghan women, Aaf said.

“It implies that Middle Eastern women — especially in Afghanistan — are invisible. It’s completely the opposite,” she said.

“They’re a huge part of society. For example, farming plays a major role in Afghanistan, and the biggest producers of food are women. Women are the backbone of the carpet industry. Before the Taliban, women were a major part of the university, more than men.”

Now, since 1994, women have been excluded from the education sector. But basic education continues underground, and it’s really not that secretive, Aaf said.

“The Taliban say big words but aren’t able to implement many of their laws,” Aaf said.” She believes they would eventually have to change policy to appease the people.

“There was talk here in the summer about reopening schools for girls,” she said. “There was the beginning of a civil society. The bombing and fighting just got rid of that. The small semblance of a civil society that had been forming is probably gone by now.”

Both women spoke of the resilience and charisma of the Afghan people.

“The country is poor, but culturally rich,” said Ray. “The people are really wonderful. They are present, accessible, hospitable. They are proud but not arrogant. You can’t really sway them from their ideas.

“And the country itself, with a backbone of mountains and the lowlands beneath, has a stark beauty. There is a mystical appeal to Afghanistan. It is a compelling place. You get hooked on it.”