By Haniya Frotan
Nazanin* was attending a school in Kabul when she survived two major attacks. One was a ruthless suicide bombing in May 2021 that killed scores of her classmates. The second came a few months later when the Taliban returned to power and banned her and all girls in Afghanistan from an education above grade six.
Both events have broken Nazanin in different ways and left her in shock. But she’s emerged with a determination to not let the terrorists who attacked her school to win.
Nazanin, 21, said she vowed to herself back then: “The dreams of the students who were killed for the crime of reading and writing must not be trampled upon.”
Today she is at the forefront of a thriving home-based and online school.
Nazanin was 16 years old when she was injured in the explosion at Sayed al-Shuhada Girls’ School. A car bomb exploded in front of the school on Saturday May 8, followed by two additional IEDs that detonated minutes later among the students. According to official reports, nearly 100 female students were killed in the attack, and 148 more were injured.
Nazanin does not remember the moment of her injury, but her younger sister Sara*, who was 15 and in ninth grade, will never forget seeing Nazanin covered in blood.
Sara fled the school after the explosions in fear for her life by climbing over the wall. She said she returned home, constantly looking over her shoulder hoping to see Nazanin behind her. But she reached home alone and found no one there.
With the mobile phone networks jammed – a common occurrence after terrorist attacks in the capital – Sara was not able to call anyone. She began to panic.
“I had felt like someone was following me. But no one was at home. Everyone had gone to the school looking for me and Nazanin. And I had no news of Nazanin,” she recalled.
Then Sara saw her sister.
“I was waiting at home and I saw Nazanin, drenched in blood, from the window. I ran out toward her. Her white shawl was stained with blood, and her hands and feet were injured,” Sara said.
“By the time I reached her, she collapsed, unconscious, to the ground.”
The pull of a promise
In the months that followed, Nazanin was undergoing treatment to recover from her injuries, both physical and psychological.
“For five or six months after the incident, I would experience seizures. My hands and feet would stiffen, and both of my jaws would lock,” Nazanin said.
“I would lose consciousness. I visited a psychologist and a psychiatrist for months and took medication. The entire worry of my family became my health.”
Yet even in that dark place, Nazanin felt pulled by her vow to her murdered friends, and she focused on getting better.
Only three months later, the group responsible for the attack on the school walked into Kabul’s seat of power and took control of Afghanistan.
Nazanin said she was in an extremely fragile psychological condition and the return of the Taliban put an immense pressure on her. After the group banned girls from high school, her vow to her friends felt heavier than ever.
But as her surviving classmates and other girls began to share their thoughts and feelings, she realized that she was not the only one with a pledge to continue to learn. That’s when she took action with establishing a home-based classroom.
“In the pursuit of knowledge, in the pursuit of education and learning, which is my human right, I lost my close friends. But I will not allow anyone to stop the spread of my friends’ dreams,” she said.
Humble beginnings for a brave vision
Nazanin started teaching English to five or six students. Gradually, the number of students grew, and soon she had two classes.
By the time the Taliban celebrated the first anniversary of their return to power, Nazanin’s secret classes had transformed into a hidden educational base with dozens of girls attending. In the meantime, she continued her own studies privately and eventually secured a scholarship to study economics abroad.
Nazanin handed the daily responsibility for the school to Sara, who had been keeping up her education through an online university.
Sara has similarly been spurred on by the death of several friends and classmates in the school bombing, all of whom were 14 or 15 years old.
“Seeing the murderers of my classmates and close friends, the same ones who took Nazanin to the brink of death, now in power and tightening the space for us girls and women in Afghanistan with their successive discriminatory decrees, is not easy,” Sara said.
“No words can express the pain I feel when I see a Taliban fighter. But I will not allow, and we will not allow the bloodthirsty Taliban to win. No matter how many obstacles they put in our way, we will overcome them.”
The educational center now teaches more subjects including drawing and Islamic studies, and online education opportunities are provided.
There are 15 volunteer teachers, mostly survivors from Sayed al-Shuhada School.
“When the center was established, we pretended we were teaching girls below the sixth grade. But in reality, our activities are focused on providing educational opportunities for the girls whose right to education has been taken away,” Sara said.
They introduce and support the students with international platforms that can provide higher level online education, such as the BBC’s “Dars” program, Begum Educational Center, or the American University of Afghanistan.
Because of the low socio-economic neighbourhood where they reside, all classes are free of charge. The sisters cover any necessary expenses such as rent and internet from their own pockets.
The Taliban recently banned women from studying in health institutes, one of the last places where women could get an education and training in medical professions. It underlined for Nazanin and Sara the importance of their efforts.
“I still go to sleep with nightmares. The pain of losing my classmates and friends is still fresh. But if these pains and losses haven’t been able to stop me, I won’t let the Taliban’s restrictions stand in my way,” Nazanin said.
“For the sake of the souls of my friends, I will never stop fighting, never stop striving, and never stop educating.”
Note*: Names have been changed for security purposes
