Prototype Persian Course with Participants from Iran and Afghanistan

From January-March 2004, four leading Afghan and Iranian participants worked together over a ten-week period to develop, test and adapt the curriculum for the Persian eCourse.

Two Iranian women with strong backgrounds in women's rights education and advocacy were trained as facilitators for the future eCourse in Iran. WLP worked with course facilitators on a weekly basis to adjust the curriculum from Leading to Choices: A Leadership Training Handbook for Women to an online learning setting.

Course sessions focused on four primary areas of leadership learning: exploring the concept of participatory leadership and the ethics of good leadership, examining personal leadership skills, developing a personal vision statement, and formulating a shared vision statement.

Both facilitators and participants felt that the cooperative group activities and chat discussions were particularly successful in fostering group synergy and arriving at a common vision. One Afghan participant stated, "Discussion opens the minds of the participants and enables them to think farther than they did before. Reaching a desired result is much easier while working with the group."