The true power of Afghanistan
Meet Shabana Basij-Rasikh, the 31-year-old education activist and founder of Afghanistan’s only girl’s boarding school, who evacuated 250 students, staff, and family members to Rwanda, days after the Taliban seized power. Relocating an entire school community to another country is an extraordinary feat, but for Shabana there was no greater risk than a lack of education, not even terrorism.
Born in Kabul and raised in family where “education was prized, and daughters were treasured,” Shabana was six when the Taliban came to power and made it illegal for girls to attend school. Despite the risk, her parents enrolled Shabana in a network of secret classrooms to continue her education. For five years, she dressed as a boy and wrapped her textbooks in grocery bags to attend classes in tiny living rooms crammed with girls and teachers who willingly risked their lives for each lesson.
Shabana was often overwhelmed by her fear of the Taliban and begged her parents to stop sending her to class. It was her father who inspired her to keep fighting, telling her, “You can lose everything you own in your life. Your money can be stolen. But the one thing that will always remain with you is what is in here,” as he pointed to his head. After the fall of the Taliban in 2002, Shabana got a scholarship to travel to America to finish high school and attend university.
In early 2008, inspired by the opportunities her education afforded her, Shabana founded the School of Leadership in Afghanistan, SOLA, which means ‘peace’ in the local Pashto language. What began as a programme to help other Afghan girls find scholarships in America evolved into a school for Afghanistan’s future changemakers, arming girls with 'critical thinking, a sense of purpose, and respect for self and others.'
SOLA opened its doors in 2016 to four Afghan girls in a rented house in Kabul. By 2021 the school had almost 100 students, grades 6-11, and a new campus was in the works when the country fell under Taliban rule once again. Although the school has been forced to relocate to Rwanda, Shabana’s heart remains in Afghanistan, determined to help the millions of girls left behind.
"As the world focuses on the dramatic -those Afghans who are managing to get out - the fire in me to invest in the education of Afghan girls who have no way out grows brighter, stronger, and louder."
