Current24:26Learning in secret: An Afghan teacher’s silent resistance
A few years ago, Mohadesa Hassani was writing her tenth grade exam in Kabul when a teacher suddenly entered the exam hall.
“He was so scared, he was like, ‘Now everybody leave, leave your paper, take your exam… hurry home,'” said 15-year-old Hassan. Current.
In the year It was August 2021, and the Taliban were regaining power in Afghanistan.
Hassani has been out of the classroom for months, returning next spring when the new school year begins. At lunch time, the principal announced this Girls’ education beyond the sixth grade is banned under Taliban lawand her first day of eleventh grade will be her last.
“I was in a nightmare, it didn’t feel real,” she recalls.
After four years, the restrictions will be removed Millions of women and girls from higher education. But not everyone accepted those decisions of the Taliban. Hassani was able to continue her education — and even graduate — thanks to the support of the Toronto-based organization Daricha School in Afghanistan.
The organization was founded by Hazrat Wahriz, who is now based in Canada but was a university lecturer and government official in Afghanistan when the Taliban regained power. He explained that Daricha means window and his work aims at “a better window for the future, a window for society… where there is an opportunity to say no, to ask why”.
Daricha supports 175 teachers and over 6,000 students, covering subjects such as math, science and English language. The secret room takes place in the teachers’ house, where young girls sit folded on the floor, often hunched over worksheets.
Those efforts are not without risk.
“There is a danger to their safety. They could be They are imprisoned, they can be imprisoned, they can be tortured.” said Wahriz.
Education ban has a ‘poetic effect’
Despite that risk, Wahriz said no Daricha class has been overrun by the Taliban since classes began in October 2021. That’s because the classes have the support and protection of their local communities, and parents approached Daricha about setting up classes in the first place.
The teachers are mostly women, he added. Their fees are partially covered by contributions from the Afghan diaspora.
Proving that education can save lives; Wahriz Added, because for many young girls the only option is marriage – sometimes by force.
Laureen Oates, executive director of Right to Learn Afghanistan (RtLA), a Canadian non-governmental organization that helps Afghan women and girls access education, said those few years of denial of education took a toll on Afghanistan and had a “deadly impact on women and girls.”
she pointed out. Increasing rates of child marriageA Worse literacy gapand narrowing employment opportunities against a backdrop of rising poverty.
“It’s also really bad governance and development policy because the whole country is affected, the whole Afghan economy is being dragged down by this,” she said.
Oates said RTLA frequently hears from women and girls experiencing mental health issues and “losing hope and purpose in life,” but many have been “unbelievably resourceful in finding solutions.”
Marwa Dashti fled Afghanistan when the Taliban retook control of the country and was saddened by the loss of her friends’ education. ‘You don’t see the future,’ she said.
The Oates organization has been monitoring the number of organizations that continue to educate girls in Afghanistann, in addition to Daricha. Their latest figures catalog 201 education providers – supporting an average of 948 students each – but Oyat thinks there could be many more operating underground.
Two-thirds of these organizations are run by Afghanistan, she added.
This shows that there is a parallel education system that is self-motivated and self-organizing but resource-bound, he said.
Students helping students
In the months since the Taliban returned, Hassani watched her friends leave Afghanistan to start new lives and new schools in other countries.
Feeling stuck, she asked them to join her online and show her the new things they were learning.As her friends abroad told their friends, a network began to form.
With Daricha’s support, Hassani and her peers founded an online tutoring network that currently connects nearly 700 girls in Afghanistan with 480 teachers around the world.
“When you’re in Afghanistan, you’re cut off from the rest of the world,” Hassani said. For her, those online classes provided a “little connection” that kept her going.
Hassani has given guidance and advice on applying Daricha For post-secondary eStudy abroad including scholarships. The organization currently has 49 graduates studying all over the world.
Hassani, now 19, is studying psychology in California. She wants to continue helping others and empowering women to find a brighter future.
Afghans want ‘change for the better’
Oates wants to see international bodies do more to support these teachers.
“Help them to be sustainable, help them connect with each other, and help them fill the gaps that the current authorities in Afghanistan are unwilling to fill,” she said.
It’s not just a moral or ethical question, but an “investment in human capital,” she said.
“These are people who are responsible for rebuilding their country and bringing peace to their country along the way,” she said.
Wahriz hopes to return to Afghanistan one day, and believes the people there need progress. As he has done in his life, he thinks education can play a key role in creating that change.
“From the very beginning, I saw how your teachers influenced my life. And I wanted to do the same, to change the lives of the new generation for the better,” he said.