tv America Tonight Al Jazeera December 29, 2015 12:30am-1:01am EST
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back to china. i don't want to go back. >> looking out at a chinatown that she now barely recognises you can visit us online at aljazeera.com. >> on "america tonight": taliban take back? the resurgence of afghanistan's feared fighters and the threat to a community struggling to bring back its freedom. >> three generations having no access to education and now we have to recover from this. it's going to take at least another 30 years. >> the disturbing questions about what's next. thanks for joining us i'm joie chen. in the final days of the year disturbing signs from afghanistan. about a threat the u.s. hoped
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had been tamped down. the latest assessments though, that instead of an end of the power of the taliban this group has reemerged now with more yellow of afghanistan than it's had since the u.s. led invasion in 2001. and that is particularly worrying for the ordinary afghans who have been struggling to bring order back to to their country, especially women, to themselves. al jazeera's jennifer glasse on a grandmother who is taking great steps forward despite the odds. >> reporter: six days a week anissa gets an early start. alone she leaves her home in kabul before dawn, not normal for an afghan woman.
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56-year-old anyssa is in a hurry. there are still many in afghanistan who disapprove of women in school. at 16 when she married her father-in-law objected. so school would wait until her youngest child turned 18. anys srvega april walk is half a mile. on this bitter cold day it takes about 20 minutes. anyssa is proud she hasn't missed a single day. it's exam time.
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the subject today islamic study. her university classmates are young enough to be her children. when she started here last year that's exactly what her professor thought she was, a mothers of a new student checking out the university. >> she is happy to help her classmates. after the exam she compares absences, explaining why her answer is correct. it's because much things like that that she has earned the respect of her classmates. she's even become an example for some parents.
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>> this is ann sa' anyssa's second year in school. special private high school. one whose mission is to educate and empower marginalized afghans. anyssa started her education here. one of 13 schools around achtion afghanistan, who teaches men and women who for some reason couldn't get an education when they wer were children.
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moved to the united states when the afghanistan war was imminent. she returned in 1971. >> we realized that the 17-year-olds were studying at third grade. there was a need for an accelerating program to help these students grow up and finish their high school as soon as they could uponnably. a lack of schools for girls, the taliban, and now, the government. if a girl gets married she can't stay in public school. that's where shurgen's private school comes in. providing an accelerated education, years of learning, reduced to a few. it is a godsend for a mother of two, wife at age 15. this was her only option to complete her education after marriage. she's about to graduate hoping to become a teacher .
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>> she has now opened schools in eight of afghanistan's 34 provinces, she said the needs are great. >> previously during the years of the factional war, there weren't any schools, folks couldn't even move out of their houses. so we've really, three generations have in fact suffered. so three generations are not having access to education and now we have to recover from all of this it's going to take at least another 30 years. >> there are signs of progress. like 21-year-old widow zarmina, mother of 3, married at age 13. when her husband died five years ago, she was determined to go to
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school, she's now attending the same high school anyssa went to. >> everyone here faced big challenges to come back to this school but anyssa is still remembered as one of its best students. one of her teachers said anyssa was always the first to arrive and volunteered to answer in class. she's confident anyssa will make a good lawyer.
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>> training to be a lawyer means anyssa studies every chance she gets. but she still makes plenty of time for her family. their support is helping her realize her dream. on fridays, all nine of her children and 14 grand kids usually get together for lunch. anyssa's sorns pitcanyssa's sone cooking, almost unheard of in afghanistan. every one of her children has a college degree. four are doctors. including fatima, who says her
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father made sure all her siblings got an education, despite the taliban and the bias against women. >> my father used to say, if i can't give you good food good clothes, i can try to give you good education. >> some of her husband's distance relatives criticized her decision to go back to school. there were many family discussions and lots of pressure but anyssa refused to quit.
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>> anyssa's studies haven't slowed her at home. this friday she spent hours preparing this lunch. but she also doesn't believe her home life should interfere with her dreams of one day being a lawyer. al jazeera's jennifer glasse joins us. i'm struck listening to your report, it reminds me so much of the young woman killed earlier this year also a student attacked by a mob. it really raises the concern how are afghan women being treated today and in the circumstances with the taliban resurging itself? >> yes, joie that's the case of farcunda, murdered in the center of kabul in the middle of a business
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day, she was accused of burning a koran. very quickly there was a trial, of those accused of killing her on the street. convictions lowered, the death penalty in four cases has been thrown out, to ten years or 20 years, in prison. >> what about the presence jen of the u.s. in all this? is there a desire to see more u.s. force? i mean that's probably not a practical political solution in the u.s. right now. but is there a call, do you hear from people on the streets, the desire for more american presence? >> well, the afghans were certainly relieved when president obama announced earlier this year that the american forces would stay at about their current level, about 10,000 troops through the end of next year. now that was supposed to drop to 5500 just about now. president obama, instead, deciding that because he wanted
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to keep the forces in, they've got a dual mission there. they're there to train advise and assist the afghan security force he as well as operate counterterrorism operations. the afghan forces know that they need this western help. >> al jazeera's jennifer glasse reporting for us, what she has seen in the recent weeks in afghans. thanks very much jen. next another bitter rally, germany's struggle to shelter refugees while holding off the resurgence of the right wing. caught in the middle, forced from home by civil war, what the youngest refugees must do to survive. >> we're here to fully get into the nuances of everything that's going on, not just in this country, but around the world. getting the news from the people who are affected. >> people need to demand reform... >> ali velshi on target.
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>> this year the crisis that has sent so many of the desperate fleeing to safety in europe have brought 1 million refugees into germany alone. that sanctuary movement, german chancellor angela merkel being honored with multiple honors, are "america tonight's" sheila macvicar found a rising and sometimes bitter chorus. >> reporter: once a fringe movement, germany's far right has taken advantage of the arrival of over a million refugees. tapping into a growing xenophobia that many fear could spiral out of control .
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marius monsterman works for a group. >> people resort to this also who would otherwise have distanced themselves from such actions. i think this is what is the most dangerous part about it. >> reporter: this drama is playing itself out in towns across germany. more than any other issue in germany, pollsters say increasingly the refugees crisis is identified as the single most important problem. >> other topics are irrelevant. it hasn't happened for at least 20 years in germany that just one topic is thai that high. >> fear about the refugees has helped the right wing to grow even spawning new parties. polls show that one of them is now the third most popular in the country. >> the most important right wing populace party in germany at the moment is the alternative for germany.
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and all the people who are unsatisfied with all these refugees coming in with the politics of angela merkel they think well, there is no alternative. except the alternative for germany. so they are rising. >> in dresden for more than a year, crowds of up to 20,000 people have been gathering every monday night to protest against islam and chancellor merkel's refugee policy, this program was started by a right wing group close to alternative for germany, it's called pegida, patriotic germans against islamization of the west. >> reporter: joaquim schneider is a 60-year-old unemployed former i.t. engineer.
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lives in an apartment surrounded by hundreds of antiques and dozens of clocks. he says he's been out of work now for almost a decade. it's what he reads about islam and right wing literat literature that scares him the most. >> schneider's sentiments are echoed by leaders from the far right like yergen schultz, of alternative for germany.
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>> the right wing may be rising in germany but their views on refugees still do not represent the majorities of germans. born and raised in the town where neonazis march every sunday, chris teefn an christinr friends reach out to refugees. they are housed in a youth hostel at the edge of town. her object: integration. >> news media is not allowed inside the camp but three syrian refugees spoke with us just outside the gate. they asked us to conceal their faces to protect their families in syria.
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>> do you know about these right wing demonstrations, these nazi demonstrations that take place near here on the weekends, on sundays? >> reporter: the refugees say weekly meetings with some local residents are helping to reduce tensions. as for the neonazis, and other supporters of the far right, christine has a simple message. that's a message the far right and its supporters have no intention of
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heeding. sheila macvicar, al jazeera, germany. >> next: caught in a cross fire. what even the youngest refugees must do to survive. >> "inside story" takes you beyond the headlines, beyond the quick cuts, beyond the soundbites. we're giving you a deeper dive into the stories that are making our world what it is.
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tomorrow. >> our american story is written everyday. it's not always pretty, but it's real... and we show you like no-one else can. this is america tonight. david schuster in for al ali velshi. "on target" tonight. big stars are rushing to the aid of peyton manning. how teams build brand-new stadiums and get taxpayers to pay bill. tonight the ten ver broncos are playing monday night football
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