By: Elyas Ahmadi
An Afghan educational center is providing free services to girls and women in secret to get international university scholarships, with hundreds of people seeking out the service.
Omar Niazi*, who runs the service called Dokhtaran-e-Danayi (Daughters of Wisdom), says demand is extremely high since girls and women have been banned from pursuing high school or tertiary education in Afghanistan by the Taliban.
He established the service about four months ago after seeing how girls and women were suffering under the Taliban restrictions. He wrote to various universities, including several in the United States, and asked them for advice on how to help girls get scholarships.
“I researched for more than two months. At the same time, my friends also talked to several professors at universities abroad,” he tells Rukhshana Media. “The answers I received was that if the girls can pass the TOEFL or Duolingo exam and their math is good, they can get a scholarship abroad, especially in the United States, and some (universities) also announced their cooperation.”
Dokhtaran-e-Danayi teaches basic mathematics, English language lessons, and shows students how to submit applications to universities around the world. Mr Niazi says his goal to help around 1000 university hopefuls every year to overcome the barriers to education created by the Taliban.
Mr Niazi and his colleagues initially started accepting students only by word of mouth and quickly grew to around 500 students. About a month after Dokhtaran-e-Danayi launched, the Taliban extended its education ban to universities and educational centers, and Dokhtaran-e-Danayi was forced to close its doors. But a month later after many requests, Mr Niazi cautiously restarted the service, accepting only 40 students.
Mr Niazi is a political science and public administration graduate from the American University of Afghanistan who worked in the education sector for several years. He believes it’s impossible to have a developed society without women’s education. It’s this belief that drives his actions, despite threats to his own safety and those he supports.
“If girls are deprived of education, the future will be dark and the possibility of having a society will be lost,” he says.
Spurghai Sultani*, 18, says she gained admission to Dokhtaran-e-Danayi through her friends. A high school graduate, Spurghai says that her hopes for her future were rekindled the day she stepped into the center.
“I am hoping to be accepted into an American scholarship,” she says. “I will study there [in the US] and after five years I will be a different person than I am now, and I hope one day my country will become a better place.”
Morsal, 19, is another Dokhtaran-e-Danayi student who attends the center after being told about it through a friend. She had just been accepted into a fine arts course when the Taliban introduced its university ban.
She goes to the center six days a week for a maximum of 1.5 hours to learn skills that she hopes will help her get a scholarship abroad.
Mr Niazi says about 14 staff help run the center, including four people in administration and 10 teachers. All are aware there are risks to being involved, so they keep their classes and location a secret.
Some students who spoke to Rukhshana Media say they even do not let anyone in outside the school see their books, including family members at home.
“One day when I was coming to the center, a Taliban fighter asked me, ‘Where are you going?’ I made an excuse. I hide my books now so that no one would ever see them,” Sadaf Ekhlaqi*, 17, says.
Mr Niazi says all students are accepted and trained for free, with the only requirement being that they provide their own books and study materials. Any costs associated with Dokhtaran-e-Danayi are funded by Afghan diaspora, a significant number of whom live in the United States.
Some of the Afghan diaspora are also working with university professors to prepare courses to be able to accept more Afghan women.
The Taliban are aware of efforts to support girls and women receiving an education outside of Afghanistan and have stepped up their own efforts to prevent access to such opportunities. Aside from banning women from travelling long distances without a male chaperone, there have been many instances of women being denied passports, and refused their own official documents of education.
Mr Niazi says Dokhtaran-e-Danayi is also engaging with the students on these matters.
“In the meetings we’ve had with our supporting friends abroad, we have also talked about the travel bans. If girls are successful in the scholarships, how can they travel? The plan is to get a commitment from parents that if their daughter gets a scholarship, they will accompany her to at least one of the neighboring countries (to be able to leave Afghanistan).”
Mr. Niazi says families are also asked to obtain passports for the students and the response from families has been positive and decisive.
Despite only having 40 out of the original 500 students currently studying in the center, Mr Niazi hopes to start lessons for the other 460 students, and in the long term to establish branches of Dokhtaran-e-Danayi in all provinces of Afghanistan.
The focus of the current students is to learn English with a view to passing the Duolingo, TOEFL or IELTS English exams, which are a basic requirement for the scholarships.
The center also boasts a library of around 5000 books for the students.
“They use the books to do their assignments, prepare for classes or to study,” Nazanin*, the manager of the library, tells Rukhshana Media.
There are many challenges for the center to operate, but Mr Niazi is determined to keep pushing ahead.
“We are trying to reach our goal, but considering the problems and limitations that exist, we may not be able to reach that goal of 1,000 people in the first year. But even if we can send 10 people to American universities, we will still try,” he says.
One of the biggest challenges is the disappointment and depression among the girls and women at the center, who live with a deep sense of insecurity in their lives and futures.
“Even though we are giving them some hope, they say that the Taliban are still there, prevailing,” he says.
*Note: Due to security concerns, the location and real names of the interviewees have not been mentioned in the report.
