Photo: Toronto Star.
Banned from schools and sports, Afghan girls are turning to online education. Nonprofits around the world are acting on their belief that impoverished girls should have a better future than being forced into marriage for the “bride price.”
Readers will remember my young friend Shagufa, who escaped Afghanistan some years ago thanks to sports and education. Today, about to graduate from a master’s program at Brandeis University, she is moving on from the bleak life mapped out for her as the youngest of 11 in a crushingly poor family. Not so, the girls left behind.
Marjan Sadat writes at the Toronto Star, “Muzhdah Rahmani was a soccer-playing teenager with dreams of studying law before the Taliban took power.
“ ‘The first thing that the Taliban did was ban girls from school and women from sports,’ recalled the 18-year-old. ‘One of my sisters studied at university. Now she can’t. My other sister, who was in the 11th grade, is now not allowed to study. My older sister, she was a journalist, is banned from work — my dad is unwell, so she was the breadwinner.
“ ‘What kind of law and Sharia is this?’ Muzhdah said via WhatsApp, speaking in Persian from Kabul.
“Added her older sister, Morwarid: ‘The days are so hard for me and my sisters that I can’t count the minutes or I would lose my mind.’
“But the sisters have found something to help them through this moment.
“Rumi Academy offers girls and women online classes. Through it, Morwarid and Muzhdah have been studying English. …
“Anita is the founder and director of Rumi Academy. She asked that her last name and her location not be made public due to concerns for her safety. She said the academy started offering classes in 2020, due to COVID-19. It started in Afghanistan, and is now based in Turkey. …
“They are teaching international languages, in particular English ‘as lingua franca,’ as well as management, journalism, literary composition and psychology.
“There were 40 Afghan female students before the Taliban’s takeover back in mid-August 2021. Now there are 382 girls at Rumi Academy amid increasing Taliban restrictions on girls and women. They range in age from 13 to 25.
” ‘When I decided to participate in these classes, I didn’t even have the money to connect the internet,’ Morwarid said. ‘A woman from Canada sponsored me to take this course and I managed to start my studies online. In these dark days, these classes are a source of light for us.’
“Preeti Verpal, a registered nurse who lives in Kitchener [Canada], is one of the people who has financially supported education for Afghan girls, and one of two sponsors from Canada. She sponsored Morwarid.
“ ‘I cried when I read the news that Afghan girls won’t be allowed to continue studying,’ Verpal said via WhatsApp.
“For six months, the cost per student is $300 (U.S.), which goes to teachers, the academy says.
‘I have no connection to Afghanistan but as a woman and a mother, I cannot sit here comfortably in Canada and watch the entire Afghan female population suffer,’ Verpal said. ‘And the only thing they did wrong was what? Be born a female.’
“ ‘I want to sponsor because I believe every girl should have the same opportunities available to them as boys. When girls are educated they can change the world, they can become financially independent to support not only themselves but their families.’
“Shafiqa Khpalwak, a poet and humans rights defender, said the country is ‘an open prison for women and every other ordinary Afghan.’
“ ‘My sister is 15 years old and in Kabul and not allowed to go to school,’ she said via WhatsApp from Afghanistan. ‘My cousin, 16 years old, wanted to be a doctor and is now at home. Every day they ask me when their school will be reopened. … The world must take serious action to put pressure on the Taliban. Condemnation will not bring any tangible results. They are responsible for this mess; now, they can’t look away.’ ”
A word on Shagufa now. She has a good job lined up to start saving money toward her goals. She also assists the founder of Educate Girls Now, another nonprofit that, despite all the upheaval in Afghanistan, continues to educate girls there, help them get to college in Bangladesh, and keep them from being sold into early marriage.
More at the Star, here. See also Educate Girls Now.
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