Sahar Education’s mission to educate girls in Afghanistan is completely prohibited by the country’s Taliban government. Founded in 2001 to “build bridges between the United States and Afghanistan” after the fall of the first Taliban regime, the organization weathered prohibitions that threatened its work, forcing its classes underground, away from the eyes of the government.
From 2001 to 2021, Sahar Education worked closely with the Afghanistan Ministry of Education to build and equip schools for girls after the Taliban’s six-year rule left schools destroyed. After the regime, the Afghan government didn’t have the resources to support the return of thousands of girls to school, so Sahar Education fundraised to fill in the gaps. Despite this, when the Taliban returned to power in 2021, over 3 million girls were still out of school, a number that soon increased because the new regime prohibited girls’ education past the sixth year of schooling.
After the regime change in 2021, Sahar Education found itself at a crossroads. The Taliban’s new directives on girls’ and women’s education were fundamentally at odds with the organization’s mission to combat girls’ illiteracy and gender-based inequality through education.
“We decided we wanted nothing to do with the new regime,” said Meetra Alokozay, executive director of Sahar Education. “We are defying every single restriction that they have put in place. We offer underground classes.”
Through partnerships with local grassroots organizations running activities that can be legally reported to the government, Sahar Education operates four education programs for girls and women that the grassroots organizations do not report to authorities. Sahar Education’s underground programs create social spaces for girls and women, as the Taliban attempts to eliminate them from social spaces.
The focus is on educating girls and women, but the results go beyond that, providing community and a space for girls and women to express themselves and improving students’ mental health overall. Before starting the program, students report high levels of depression, a loss of confidence, and loneliness, which are tackled through classes where girls can socialize and learn at the same time.
“The workshops that we offer include women empowerment and women’s health workshops, we talk about domestic violence prevention, we talk about mental health, menstrual health, and reproductive health,” Alokozay said, adding that this kind of curriculum helps students get their confidence back and encourages them to make friends, improving their mental health overall. The Sahar Education curriculum also includes topics like English and mathematics.
Students learn skills that allow them to open home-based business and increase their economic independence. Women and girls can attend clandestine classes to learn about information technology, coding and sewing. These skills help women and girls earn their own money. The ability to work and earn a reliable income boosts women and girls’ sense of empowerment, and it aids women’s ability to escape domestic abuse situations.
Though Alokozay cannot reveal any identifying information about the students due to security risks, she spoke of a 16-year-old Afghan girl who rebuilt her confidence through Sahar Education’s coding program.
“She told us that before joining the program, she felt like she didn’t exist, she didn’t matter,” Alokozay said. ”After, she feels like she has regained her existence and she matters. Just that in itself is huge.”
The same student can now help her sibling with their schoolwork.”It’s not just about coding, it’s also about knowing that you exist. That’s the first step of empowerment, knowing that you matter, knowing that your voice matters.”
Sahar Education also educates high-school-age boys as agents of change and allies in the fight against gender inequality in Afghan society. This program demonstrates how education and advocacy can change lives. The boys who attend these educational sessions become advocates to combat early marriage and domestic abuse, Alokozay said.
She gave an example of a student who successfully convinced his parents to help his sister out of an abusive engagement. “A student’s sister was engaged to her cousin and wasn’t happy about that engagement because he was emotionally abusing her,” Alokozay said.
Breaking off the engagement would be difficult because there’s a lot of stigma around walking away from a relationship, and the girl and her family would be judged even if the relationship was abusive. But the girl’s brother stood up for his sister, arguing that she shouldn’t have to marry someone who is abusing her.
“He used different references from the religion, from Afghan culture, stories of the prophet, to convince his dad,” Alokozay said. “He was able to convince his family. His sister broke off the engagement and is now single, happy, and joining online classes.”
Featured image credit: Eskinder Debebe for United Nations Photo/Flickr
