Wanting to be the Oprah of the Middle East, Angelina Jolie has opened a girls school in Afghanistan. E! says that Angelina opened the school in November, but I never saw anything about it before now. Does anyone remember reading about it before? Angelina intends to open more schools in the region by selling a new line of jewelry which she calls Style Of Jolie. I didn't realize she had a style, but I guess it will go best if you look like you have been doing heroin for 20 years and weigh 100 pounds. I do think that it is great she is doing this because any help in the region for women is a good thing. That being said, I can't imagine Angelina designing any jewelry. She has never seemed the type to want to sell a product like that or go on QVC late at night and take listener calls about why they think it is such a great piece.
Let's hope it really does some good. I am afraid it will just be a big target. I hardly see her wear jewelry. Would probably buy her hoodia supplement though.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great thing, but I am also scared for the school. It will probably be bombed by the Taliban.
ReplyDeleteMe too...too many muslim girls have been targeted trying to get an education...I have a bad feeling about this
ReplyDeleteShe opened it in November and you never heard anything about it, why give her crap for by saying she wants to be the Oprah of the Middle East? If she wanted that, she would've sent a press release the day she came up w/the idea.
ReplyDeleteI love Angie and I'm glad she's doing good things on the downlow.
ITA @Izzie
DeleteDitto to everything said = it's a great thing, but it worries me.
ReplyDeleteI think it's great and agree with Izzie. I hope part of the funds she's donating will pay for security for the school.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Izzie....
ReplyDelete...as usual on an AJ post.
Heh, Libby, you know it!
DeleteI think this is a great thing to do. Good for her!
ReplyDeleteNot to sound xenophobic, but there are plenty of schools that need help in the United States... especially in my state. I guess people around here just don't like to pay tazes. Good for her, though. ALL girls deserve a chance.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what taxes have to do with it, but schools like this benefit us as much as they do the children who attend them. The best way to fight terrorism is through education.
Delete*taxes
ReplyDeleteMaybe the reason we didnt hear about it, is that the school is trying to "lay low" sorta speak and not outs itself as a target.
ReplyDeleteIm hoping they have guards, or a huge wall with barbed wire around the top. I know that doesn't sound very appealing, but its better than being in the open for an attack.
wonder if she worked in conjunction with Greg Mortenson. Has anyone rad "Three Cups of Tea"? I know there is controversy around him but I do believe he was honest in his depiction as to how hard it is to get a school built in Afghanistan. Also keep in mind that little girl who was shot because the Taliban didn't want women learning (keep the females down). The teachers were terrified even. So while guards would be helpful I'm not so sure they are actually capable of preventing any harm to the students or teachers.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to poo poo it because anyone wanting to help and seeking zero publicity for it is a wonderful person. But as westerners we have a hard time truly understanding the business mechanics in that country. It's just been insurmountable.
But Jeneral is correct...Fight terrorism through education. We just have a few generations to educate. It's going to take time and the Taliban may not allow that to happen.
ReplyDeleteI think we have to keep trying, despite the dangers. Otherwise, the terrorists have won. Why do you think they fight education so hard? They don't want anything to contradict their propaganda.
ReplyDeleteI think the things she does are wonderful, and its the only time her face comes alive and she looks happy. Most people, when they have a cause, they will sell anything to make it work. She's an actress, dont forget.But no, I dont see her on QVC.
ReplyDelete@jeneral Where I live, we have some of the lowest property taxes and some of the poorest schools. Maybe I'm just smarting because of a new law that passed in the middle of the night in secret that will take more from the most vulnerable children in my state.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I agree that education is important in all parts of the world, and she is doing a good thing.
I share your frustration, Caralw. I grew up in a rural area that could never pass a school levy. We used 20 year old textbooks.
DeleteI hope she keeps in the loop. Oprah's thing got messy for a while. Haven't heard anything bout it lately.
ReplyDeleteAt least she in investing in something other than her looks...(Jennifer Aniston). Angie put all of the $ she saved from not buying self tanner to good use.
scary indeed you can tell the men in the photo are going, girls should not be in school they should be in burkas and married off who is this evil infidel just wait till they all leave
ReplyDeletethat said power to the women and girls of Afghanistan, you have to be brave still to just go to school, or be a female public figure
you have to be brave to be a public figure period
I think it's wonderful for doing what she does, and I do greatly admire her for it. It just seems kinda hypocritical that she does this stuff, but then comes home to her 10 million dollar mansion.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like the African school was more of a vanity project for Oprah - hence the terrible handling of hiring molesters and lack of follow through on her part.
ReplyDeleteI can get behind this school; it seems like there are little to no options for girls in that area. This is groundbreaking work. Even if she's a drug user, even if she stole the partner she is with, even if she has no female friends - AJ does a lot of good here and all over the world. She's raising a brood of kids who won't go without. My take is you can't spread too much kindness. Look at the difference between the work AJ does and the Kardashian "charities".
Schools in America are all struggling and it's going to take some serious effort to overhaul the NCLB fiasco. I think I read that over 100 new schools are closing this month in Chicago. When kids have to travel to gang rival schools, guess what? They don't go. An elderly woman was thrown down a trash chute this weekend in a building in Chicago.
Tl;dr - everyone deserves a decent education. Good for AJ. She does work here in America here as well.
I'm from Chicago. There are 54 elementary schools closing - not "over 100 new schools." Also, the elderly woman fell down the garbage chute in her building (bless her soul). Last year, there was a similar tragedy in that building with a young tenant with a developmental disability.
DeletePoint of correction.
@Uptown85: I used to teach for CPS and don't live in Chi anymore. Last I heard, which I think was last week, was that it was over a hundred. Thanks for the correction. It's still shitty.
DeleteI have a teacher friend who used to live in the building on Astor where the woman died. According to her, foul play is suspected. It's terrible either way, and I didn't connect my thoughts very well. Chi is on target to surpass the murder rate from 2012 and it's only April. I think that speaks more to my point.
Also, Afghanistan isn't part of the Middle East let's get that sorted. It's in South East Asia not the Arab Peninsula
ReplyDeleteI think it's awesome she has opened a girls' school, but I sometimes wonder if it isn't better to have the school accept both boys and girls so that they learn equality at an early age. Bravo to Jolie, nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteShe takes this work seriously, so until I hear otherwise, I can only applaud the work she does.
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to rush into a scenario and create more problems than you were trying to solve. It takes consultations with experts, laying aside vanity, patience, money and extensive planning. I don't see her just throwing up a structure and calling it a school. She knows full well the risks those girls would be taking just to step inside and I trust they have taken all of that and more into consideration. I cannot imagine life in this camp, but for those girls, I'll bet school is the best part of their day.
@rexruther,
ReplyDeleteOprah just sent the first graduates to Universities around the world this September, on her dime. Unlike Madonna's school, Oprah's is still going.
Good for Jolie. We have "free" education across North America, and a lot of youth don't even want to finish. It's frustrating listening to young people complain about not finding work, yet they don't even want to go back and finish high school. Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, kids are risking their lives to get a basic education. I wouldn't invest a dime here either.
@GWU: I think I confused the Madonna & Oprah schools. My bad.
DeleteSuck it Madonna!
ReplyDeleteIzzie, Libby...I too am a Jolie fan.
ReplyDeleteShe and Brad Pit do a lot of stuff like this, without publicity or fanfare. They regularly donate huge portions of their wealth to charitable endeavors.
And it is no more hypocritical of her to go home to her 10 million dollar mansion than it is for me to go home to my nice, comfortable, upper-middle class home when there are homeless and starving people in my city. Should we all live in poverty because some do? No. You do what you can within your means and what you are comfortable with.
@lunaire...
ReplyDeleteIt is unlikely, in Afghanistan, that boys would attend schools with girls; that is one part of a very multi-layered problem which will only start to be solved by educating the female populace.
Good for her and the young women of Afganistan, I wish them all well!
ReplyDeleteAt the very least Angie and Brad put their money to good use, overseas and here in the US, I greatly respect both of them for that.
I agree. They could easily give money to random charities (which is fine) but always seem very involved especially AJ.
DeleteApparently this is the second school for girls she has opened.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Daily News;
Jolie also funded a girl school in eastern Afghanistan that opened in 2010, according to the UNCHR.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/angelina-jolie-opens-girls-school-afghanistan-article-1.1305362#ixzz2PKcBk9Df
Apparently AJ has already opened a school or two in Kenya for refugee girls. They are doing wonderful work educating these girls and helping them to break the cycle of female genital mutulation and becoming child brides.
ReplyDeleteGood for Angie! She did this way under the radar unlike the mighty Opes, and didn't trash American kids in the process!
ReplyDeleteShe has had a line of jewelry for some time. It is called Style of Jolie and it is something I could never dream to afford even though there are several pieces that I absolutely covet lol.
ReplyDeleteI respect her and all she continues to do for people around the world. People keep harping on she "stole" Brad Pitt from Jennifer Aniston but you can't steal a man that doesn't want taken! It has been years and they all have moved on but the fans. She could cure cancer and someone would still bring up the past lol.
@Talha
ReplyDeleteAfghanistan is part of the Middle East, which is a region, not a continent. Sort of like how Egypt is part of the Middle East but on the continent of Africa.
As for Jolie, if you know anything about her politics, she is the last person to have her altruism not mean something, since it takes an arm and a leg to make a libertarian donate in the first place.
The school is probably very dangerous, but there are definite degrees of it. I doubt it is in the epicenter of Taliban activity, which is where it is needed the most but the least feasible.
Afghanistan, that whole place breaks my heart. There are some pictures online of Afghanistan (maybe from Kabul) from the 1960's. It's shocking because... it looks like the 1960's. Women wore modern styles, skirts to the knee, boofy-hairstyles. They went to school, went to work. Add 50 years and the place regressed 500 years.
ReplyDeletehttp://englishrussia.com/2011/07/21/the-afghanistan-of-the-50s-60s/
I don't usually jump on the Angelina/Brad/Jennifer soapbox, but today I'm gonna. Brad Pitt, like him or not, is a human being capable of making his own choices, not an object. He was not stolen. Angelina didn't hold on a gun on him or bash him over the head, he was not kidnapped. He left his marriage of his own free will.
ReplyDeleteI highly doubt that if he had never met Angelina Jolie, he and Jennifer Aniston would still be married today. If you want to blame someone for being a homewrecker in all this, point your finger at the guy who was married at the time and left his wife.
Yes, I am Team Jolie, but I've been on that team since she went back to a foreign orphanage to adopt a kid she couldn't live without. A move that most likely helped sink the marriage she was in at the time.
Go Angie!
"People keep harping on she "stole" Brad Pitt from Jennifer Aniston but you can't steal a man that doesn't want taken! It has been years and they all have moved on but the fans. "
ReplyDeleteYou're the only one bringing that into this conversation.
I have a friend who just returned from service in Kandahar. She's a nurse in the military. Fortunately she was able to post regularly on her Facebook page but, damn, it was odd seeing my friend, whom I've known since 5th grade, with a gun on her in every photo.
That whole country is dangerous, it wouldn't surprise me if we're reading about it getting destroyed by the Taliban within a year.
Zeeky: The difference in the Afghanistan in those pictures and the Afghanistan of today is incredible, and incredibly sad.
ReplyDelete^ I took to long to type ^
ReplyDeleteYou and Gayeld are the only ones bringing that up here. No one else has brought up JA (and I'm on her side). smh.
She and Brad cheated on Jennifer, not just her. He decided that crap too. But that doesn't take away from what she's done for those girls. On the jewelry design front, blood vials, and tiny daggers aren't really my style, but hey,to each their own. :-)
ReplyDelete@Jenn. Unless Angie was in some relationship with Jennifer that I'm unaware of, Brad's the only one who "allegedly" cheated. Angie is the one he "allegedly" cheated with. But I truly believe that Brad and Jennifer would be divorced now no matter what.
ReplyDeleteI love Angelina Jolie. She does good, and she sure takes a lot of crap for it just because she's a little weird. Well, who isn't? As for the jewelry line, why doesn't Enty know that she started that a few years ago already?
ReplyDeleteI really don't get why people hate her so much. She uses her fame and money for good and does so respectfully. She uses the proper channels, covers up and doesn't thrust her money in their face (I see no jewellery on her). I think it's brave what she is doing for those girls and those who attend the school I hope they're safe and happy and manage to make something of their lives.
ReplyDeleteRE: Brad & Jen thing. They would've split anyway and make angelina gave him that push but if it wasn't her it would've been someone else.
Robert - It's just devastating, the horrors Afghanistan has faced. There's more on that site, too -- modern pictures, pictures from when the Soviets were there.
ReplyDeleteThe reason any of us still talk about Jen-Brad-Angie after so long is because it's a damn fine narrative.
ReplyDeleteJen's the everyday sweetheart who got her prince. Then a much more beautiful, glamorous "wicked queen" took him away. The fairy tales always end in the couple reuniting, and the wicked queen losing out. Plus, it strikes a nerve with anyone that's been dumped for another. The media know this and they exploit it.
It's my opinion that if Jen and Ang were on the same rung of the hotness meter, the Brad-Jen divorce would be ancient history.
You missed the part where 100% of the proceeds are going towards the school. That's right. 100 PERCENT. As in ALL.
ReplyDeletePeople complain that she isn't a girl's girl. And yet here she is, taking a stand for the helpless, hopeless and powerless girls of this country. I like her version of girl power better.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to AJ with the school, and girls who attend. May they all be safe. I looked at her jewelry online. It's semi-prescious stones in great settings. Not bad prices for quality jewels. You could do worse quality wise. The styles are all very fashion forward.
ReplyDeleteNothing but respect from me for AJ - she does good work because she believes in it, not because it gets her attention. She isn't perfect, but she's never claimed to be so, either.
ReplyDeleteWhat a tacky, phony woman. Of course she's going to cover up her greedy need to make money by saying ONLY SOME of the proceeds from the sale of the jewelry will go towards the schools.
ReplyDeleteRecently Brad donated some of his own money. He said he's match donations UP TO 100k or 200k (can't remember? Why not donate millions of his own money?
They can never do something without seeking publicity.
No one benefits more than these two from the publicity. They're selling wine, Chanel, etc.
That was the point, that people will now go look at her tacky jewelry.
ReplyDelete1) Afghanistan is not part of the middle east. It is not even connected to the middle east. It borders on Pakistan and India, then beyond that Iran, then beyond that the middle east. Afghan culture is different from Middle Eastern culture in alot of ways.
ReplyDelete2) Co-ed schools are not an option in Afghanistan. Girls and boys are forbidden from going to school. Or even dancing together.
3) I love that Angelina Jolie is opening a school in the nation that produces most of the heroin in the world. Fun stuff.
Ugh when is she going to adopt me?..., of sleep wit me. Hey jolie
ReplyDeletein a region where most of the world's best heroin comes from.......
ReplyDeleteGenkgirl - That's a good point. Maybe for Ang it's a "kill two birds with one stone" trip?
ReplyDeleteNellie, one of my besties net Angelina when she was in town with billy bob when they were together. My friend was on her way to work out and Ang tagged along with her. My friend said she was funny, sweet and stunning without a stitch of makeup on. The media may not see her as a girls girl but my friend was impressed with how much she seemed like a normal girl. Oh and at the time mat Damon's wife was Billie bobs assistant and in town with him and Ang !
ReplyDelete