Pakistani women want to study Italian

The Pakistani women that live in Gallarate want to learn Italian and have made a rush for the courses presented by Iscos, Anolf Cisl and Centro Eda; as many as three courses were activated in Gallarate, in cooperation with the town’s Caritas. “We found a breeding ground to work on and a ready response from the Pakistani community,” says Sergio Moia, member of the Cisl of the province. “Let’s start with the Italian language course; this response debunks the myth of the Muslim woman who’s always at home and keeps others at a distance. This initiative proves that it’s partly a commonplace, and that if there are the right conditions, there’s also the willingness.”

Here are the facts. Anolf Cisl, Iscos and Eda had thought of just one course for about fifteen participants. “A lot of women showed up, so we had to set a maximum of 50 participants.” The courses, at that point, have become three: two in the morning in Cascinetta (separated according to the language level each woman belongs to) and one in the early afternoon, in the town centre. Caritas has provided the classrooms, and next to each one of them there will be a place where a woman from the Pakistani community will babysit the children, as most of the women are also mothers. The courses started two weeks ago and last 40 hours, distributed in two weekly lessons of two hours each. The initiative has been presented today by Martine Illgen from Anolf, Sergio Moia from Cisl, the Centro Eda coordinator Matilde Leone and the headmaster of the Trade School Falcone (that supports the Centro Eda) Carmela Locatelli. With them there were also three representatives of the Pakistan community, Pasha Naeem, Raja Gohar Rehamn and Seyd Muhammad Yousaf. The Pakistani community is also organising itself as an association, with the exact purpose of making initiatives such as the one in Gallarate easier to activate. This is how we create integration and debunk stereotypes.