By Mehreen Rashidi
Zahra* is the kind of woman the Taliban had hoped to eradicate. Despite Taliban decrees cutting her off from any formal education and most opportunities for work or socialising, Zahra is still pursuing her studies and her dreams of being a doctor.
Radically, she views the denial of her freedom as an opportunity.
“Despite being prevented from continuing my studies, I see this period as a long-term opportunity, especially my English language,” Zahra says.
She had passed Afghanistan’s university entrance test to study medicine. But a Taliban ban on education for girls above grade six meant she could not continue.
To her delight, she stumbled upon Dokhatran-e-Aftab, a secret group of Afghan women voluntarily hosting high-level education courses.
And her fate changed. Zahra has been attending the language courses of for seven months.
“These lessons have had a great impact on me. Now I can speak fluently,” she says.
“My goal in participating in the English classes is to obtain internationally recognized credentials such as TOEFL and IELTS, which are very effective in securing scholarships from foreign universities.”
Image: Supplied
Dokhatran-e-Aftab, or Girls of the Sun, is led by twenty volunteers. Some of them are university graduates, while others are students who couldn’t continue their education because of the Taliban’s education ban.
The organization has at least 200 female students attending courses online.
Organisers say the initiative has grown organically, born from girls and women who refused to surrender to the limitations of the Taliban beliefs and decrees that control of Afghanistan.
Preparing for horizons beyond
Soren,* one of the founders, was taking her final semester exams at Kabul University when the Taliban ordered universities to no longer allow female students. Although she managed to graduate, she says the shock of thousands of other girls and women being denied this education compelled her to establish Dokhtaran-e-Aftab with the help of her friends.
The classes are taught for free across a growing number of subjects, including English language, computer science, and mathematics. New classes will be taught in the future, including photography, French, German and other scientific webinars.
She says a key aim of the subjects is to prepare students to continue their education abroad.
Today, secret schools, underground classes, and online training courses are found all over Afghanistan as a defiant alternative to the Taliban’s education bans.
A portal of hope and motivation
For the students and teachers alike, these clandestine courses provide not only new skills and knowledge, but they also serve to help pull the girls and women out of their isolation and maintain their motivation for education.
“When the doors of educational centers were closed, a lifetime of my own aspirations and those of my peers, as well as other girls and women, vanished before my eyes,” Sima*, another Dokhtaran-e-Aftab founder and instructor, says.
“I decided to pass on even the smallest of my skills to girls so that in the future, women wouldn’t lack skills and knowledge.”
She says she is confident that Afghan girls are resilient enough to go the distance.
“We are educating girls who will undoubtedly be tomorrow’s teachers. This cycle will continue, and no one can stop it or hinder the spread of knowledge.”
Making the most of every opportunity
Marwa*, a twelfth-grade graduate who has been attending Dokhtaran-e-Aftab’s online classes, says she is striving to learn English.
LIke Zahra, she hopes English proficiency will help her get her qualifications through universities abroad.
“These lessons have been very useful and effective for my knowledge and especially my English skills. They have helped me immensely from every aspect and at any time,” she says.
Marwa also encourages other girls to make the most of what they have.
“Considering the circumstances that girls my age are facing, my message to them is that they should never give up.
“They should make use of the little opportunities they have until they achieve their goals. It’s not impossible. Never lose hope,” Marwa says.
Challenges to be overcome
Soren says there are challenges in providing free education online, such as lack of access to necessary facilities, weak internet, and frequent power outages. However, these obstacles are not enough to stop them.
“In the future, I hope we can provide more support to our teachers and students,” Soren says.
“We also aim to assist them with their financial and technical difficulties in participating in online classes and ensure the regular attendance of students in classes.”
For Soren, the dream is to witness her students continuing their education abroad.
For Sima, it’s for girls to have the same opportunities as boys, regardless of their socio-economic background or geographical location.
“We are striving to empower girls to acquire knowledge, skills, and self-confidence through education. This can lead to social and economic improvement for themselves, their families, and their communities,” Sima says.
She says promoting gender equality through empowering and educating girls and opening pathways for women to leadership roles and desired careers are the long-term goals of the organization.
Dokhtaran-e-Aftab online class. Image: Supplied
Defeat is only when women stop reading and writing
Soren says that Afghan women are fighting on several fronts today, but the real defeat will only happen they stop reading and writing.
“As long as women hold books and pens, no one can distort or ignore their identity because no ‘project’ of degradation can succeed against educated women and girls,” Soren says.
Despite the inequality of the struggle they face, she urges Afghan women and girls to preserve their feminine identity and maintain hope and motivation for education.
She says if women surrender to their exclusion from society as the Taliban is trying to do, the future of Afghanistan will be far more dark and challenging than it is even today.
“With the exclusion of women from society, there will be a loss of diverse perspectives, skills, and talents. This can lead to a decrease in innovation, economic growth, and social progress,” she says.
The leadership team of Dokhtar-e-Aftab say the Taliban should be aware of what they are doing through their bans, and that denying work and education for half of society will only lead to the degradation and backwardness of Afghanistan.
“The Taliban should not allow their extremist religious beliefs to deprive citizens of their human rights and destroy the country,” they say.
*Names have been changed for security reasons.
