Women bond across miles and cultures

A friend directed Corallo to a Web site, which led her to RAWA a few years back.

Clem Richardson

Great People

Andeisha spent a few days at Regina's house last week.

That's the short version of a two-year, 6,700-mile story - a tale laced with blood and hope - that culminated with the two meeting for the first time this month.

The meeting was at the Seventh Ave. platform of the F train.

Regina Corallo, 33, is a St. John's University adjunct professor of English. She and husband, Richard Colacino, live in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Regina Corallo sponsored an Afghan boy and met Andeisha, head of the Afghan aid group

Andeisha, 24, is sponsor coordinator for RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. Now, being a woman is hazardous enough in that far-flung country, and being a revolutionary woman is much more so. The RAWA Web site (www.rawa.org ) has pictures to prove it. It's a country where women historically had few rights, and even those were severely curtailed under the once-deposed and now fearfully resurgent Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until they were overthrown with help from the United States in 2001.

Under the religious regime, any man could beat a woman on the street for offenses as simple as having an ankle exposed. Women could not be educated, and could be killed if discovered they were being educated secretly. Stoning was common.

"These women were literally ghosts in society," said Corallo. "They were pushed to the brink of nonexistence, pushed into prostitution, poverty, begging."

"The marginalized groups that have been pushed off, someone has to speak for them. That is what this group is about. Like their brochure says, they are a voice for the voiceless," said Corallo.

Raising your voice can be hazardous. RAWA's founder, Meena, was killed in 1987.

The group is now based in nearby Pakistan, but runs hundreds of schools, orphanages, health and other programs throughout Afghanistan. With aid from the US-based NGO RAWA has created a worldwide network of supporters.

Corallo learned of RAWA through a Web site. She has studied women's issues for most of her life - an interest triggered, perhaps, while she was growing up a sports-obsessed young woman in Staten Island's Bull's Head community.

"I love soccer and hockey," said Corallo, who also studied gymnastics for a time. "My brothers [Matthew and Mark] could care less about sports."

Her father, Albert, is maintenance supervisor at the Metropolitan Opera - and yes, Corallo loves opera.

"I got to see Luciano Pavarotti's final performance," she said. "It was awesome."

Her mother, Margaret, worked at St. John's University. So that's where Corallo went after Port Richmond High School. She graduated in 1997 with a B.A. in English literature and a minor in journalism.

She has since earned a master's in English literature from the school, and is about to begin studying for her doctorate.

While still an undergraduate, Corallo worked part-time as a sportswriter for the Staten Island Advance newspaper. Though she enjoyed covering soccer and other sports for the paper, there were enough people ahead of her awaiting promotions to full-time gigs that she knew another career path would be more advantageous.

Literature, or rather studying and teaching literature, won out because "it opens up a moment in history and life that you can call up and examine," she said.

That in turn led to Corallo studying gender issues and the long-term effects marginalization has on various parts of a society.

"It was something I wanted to explore further because it still exists," she said. "The Western world still feels the effect of its heritage: colonization, slavery, the oppression of women. All these things still exist. Even though we have this idea that we have fought for equality, there are still things that need to be rectified."

"Obviously, Western women have a different fight," she said. "We're in a better position than the women of RAWA. My freedoms are different. But it's important for me that other young women have the opportunities I had in my life."

A friend directed Corallo to Web site, which led her to RAWA a few years back. For two years she has sponsored an Afghani boy, Rahim, 15, so he can attend a Pakistani school far from home.

"His parents are alive, but can't afford to send him to school," she said. "What I liked was that RAWA doesn't just sponsor girls and women. They have not segregated the sexes. They know that if the country is to survive, both men and women have to be educated."

Andeisha arranged for Corallo to sponsor Rahim, and makes sure Corallo receives letters from and pictures of him. In July, she told Corallo she would be visiting the States in September and wanted to meet her.

Said Corallo: "But my husband and I thought it was important that we host her and she come stay with us, so she did."

Any trepidation Corallo was feeling dissipated when they met on the southbound platform of the F train - a Manhattan friend found it the most convenient way to ship Andeisha and her bags to Brooklyn.

Her visitor turned out to be a remarkable woman - Andeisha taught herself to speak English after 9/11. She also is a mother and friend.

"She is a warm, caring person," Corallo said. "I saw a lot of strength and courage in her, just from her telling me about her life and the things she has been through. At the same time, she was a woman from a completely different culture, but we found we had a lot of things in common." Some of their discussions during Andeisha's five-day stay lasted into the wee hours, Corallo said.

"Afghanis love America - they just don't love the present government," she said.

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com