The fall of Kabul and the Taliban’s re-emergence on the political canvas of Afghanistan turned out to be a colossal nightmare for the prospect of girls’ education in the country. By positing a ban on what barred Afghan girls from getting a secondary school education in September last year, Afghanistan became the first country in the world to restrict half its population from getting a secondary education. When the Taliban first came into power in 1996, more of a similar approach was adopted by its leadership but much has changed in the last two decades. Afghanistan went on from having zero secondary school girls’ enrollment in 1999 to 3.7 million female secondary school students within a span of 15 years. After the Taliban reneged on a pledge to finally reopen secondary schools for female students in March this year, a strong domestic and international reaction was directed toward the Taliban leadership but to no avail.
Such a hard stance of Taliban leadership was even supported by some leaders under the guise of cultural standings of the Pashtun people. For instance, Imran Khan’s retrogressive remarks about Pashtun’s cultural sensitivity towards girl’s education during the 17th Extraordinary Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in December 2021 received harsh criticism from women rights activists from all over the world, calling his statement a ‘boorish attempt to reinforce Taliban mindset’. To analyze whether the Pashtun culture is constraining towards girl’s education or not, let us discuss the journey of young, Pashtun Afghan women, who worked tirelessly for the upheaval of women’s education in Afghanistan and it is something that could be regarded as the real depiction of Afghan’s devotion to education.
At 22, she was standing in the middle of the stage at TEDWomen Conference 2012, with a baton of hope and boundless possibilities in her hand as she addressed the crowd. Shabana Basij-Rasikh, an Afghan educator and social entrepreneur from Kabul, was narrating the journey of the School of Leadership, Afghanistan – SOLA – the first and only boarding school for girls in Afghanistan. It is quite intriguing to look into the fact that her grandfather was deserted by his family for taking a clear stance of conferring her daughter (Shabana’s mother) with modern education. Her mother went on to become a teacher and after retirement, turned her house into a school for girls and women in her neighborhood. Her father – 1st among his family to receive an education – believed that there was a greater risk in not educating his children than educating them under Taliban rule. After the Taliban came into power in 1996, Shabana – who was at that point 6 years old – used to dress up like a boy so that she could escort her elder sister to a secret school. They would cover their books in a grocery bag and take a different route each day to avoid any suspicion. While the future of girls’ education in Afghanistan hung in the balance, in 2001, she saw her jubilant father announcing one day – while listening to BBC News – “The Taliban are gone, you can go to a real school now.” From that day onwards, girls’ education in Afghanistan took a leap forward in a direction that defined the beginning of an unprecedented era of women’s education in Afghanistan.
Shabana received her high school education in the US through the State Department’s Youth Exchange Program and while at Middlebury College for her undergraduate degree, founded SOLA in 2008 with the purpose of imparting quality education to the young girls of her homeland. SOLA is the story of unprecedented resilience, perseverance, and a vision that gives hope to millions of young Afghan girls. It truly represents the struggle of a young woman – from a Pashtun origin – supported by her family not only to get an education but also to lay the foundation of something that, undoubtedly, is the real depiction of the Pashtun culture that Malala rightfully put it in words as, “We represent Pashtuns – not the Taliban”.
But the story did not end here. Fast-forward to August 2021, Shabana was burning the records of her students in Kabul, so that they could not be harmed at the hands of the Taliban as the city fell. From becoming a full-fledged boarding school in 2016 with 24 girls in 6th grade to nearly 100 girls in grades 6 to 11 in 2021, and drawing girls from 28 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, SOLA temporarily shifted to Rwanda with all of its staff, students, and their families in late August. The sad part was that Shabana knew this day would come and she had been quietly planning for it for a long time. But SOLA has planted roots that can never be destroyed as young girls today are dreaming to join SOLA. With the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education, the time has come for the young women of SOLA to meet the uncertainty with their heads on and rise above it as Afghanistan stands at a crucial junction in history as far as the future of Afghan women in the country is concerned.
Shabana and School of Leadership is a prime example of turning the uncertainty of what might be into the certainty of what will be, through careful contingency planning. Notwithstanding the fact that in the context of Afghanistan it is necessary to have the support of men as Shabana would herself put it in words, “Behind most of us who succeed is a father who recognizes the value in his daughter and who sees that her success is his success”; the reason – chief among many – is the security concern of the parents. But Shabana’s success story is a living example that desired results can be accomplished against great odds. The WHY of her life is all about empowering the young Afghan women and this by far is the best representation of Pashtun culture as she has allured not violence but acceptability and agility on part of the Afghan people.
SOLA’s future, for the time being, is uncertain in Afghanistan, but Shabana is all but hopeful about the prospect of it influencing the young minds to achieve great things for them and their country. Addressing the TEDWomen Conference in California this month – 9 years after her first appearance – Shabana apart from sharing the harrowing story of SOLA’s evacuation from Afghanistan, posed another challenge to the world, “As the noise dies down and Afghanistan slips from front pages, do not look away!” because if they do, she won’t be able to stand and talk about the journey of SOLA after 9 years – in 2030 – when she would be 40.
