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NEW DELHI / LONDON / ISLAMABAD, October 28 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Locked in her home in Herat, Afghanistan, Zainab Muhammadi remembers spending time with her friends in the cafeteria after coding class. Now she logs into secret online classes every day.
His school closed after the Taliban took control of the country in August. But that didn’t stop Muhammadi from learning.
“There are threats and dangers for girls like me. If the Taliban got to know (…) they could punish me severely. They could even stone me to death,” said Muhammadi, who asked to use a pseudonym to protect their identity.
“But I have not given up hope or my aspirations. I am determined to continue my studies,” the 25-year-old told the Thomson Reuters Foundation during a video call.
She is one of hundreds of Afghan girls and women who continue to learn – some online and others in makeshift classrooms hidden away – despite their schools being closed by the Taliban.
Fereshteh Forough, CEO and Founder of Code to Inspire (CTI) – Afghanistan’s first all-female coding academy – created encrypted virtual classrooms, uploaded online course content, and donated laptops and internet packages to about 100 of its students, including Muhammadi.
“You can be locked in (and) exploring the virtual world without any hesitation, without worrying about geographic boundaries. That’s the beauty of technology,†she said.
In September, the government said older boys could return to school, along with all primary-age children, but told older girls around 12 to 18 to stay home until what conditions allow their return.
The Taliban, who banned girls from going to school during their last reign about 20 years ago, have vowed he would allow them to go to school as they seek to show the world that ‘he changed.
A senior UN official who met with the Taliban earlier this month said the government was working on a framework, which would be released by the end of the year.
“The educational gains of the past two decades must be strengthened, not reversed,” said Omar Abdi, deputy executive director of UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
After the Taliban were ousted in 2001, school attendance increased rapidly, with more than 3.6 million girls enrolled in 2018, according to UNICEF.
The number of university students, which now number in the tens of thousands, has also jumped. Almost 6% of women entered higher education in 2020, compared to 1.8% in 2011.
Nonetheless, the country has one of the largest gender education gaps in the world, with UNICEF saying girls make up 60% of the 3.7 million Afghan children out of school.
Not letting girls complete their education comes at a huge cost, including poverty, child marriage, teenage pregnancies and a lack of understanding of their rights and their ability to access basic services, activists say.
“Education enables them to take care of their health, have a stronger voice in their families, prevent domestic violence and become breadwinners,†said Forough, whose school teaches everything from English in graphic design and mobile application development.
“We didn’t want to wait. We wanted to continue our mission.”
FEAR OF STUDYING
The Taliban have also suggested they could turn to technology to help some women continue their education.
Education Minister Abdul Bqi Haqqani told a press conference last month that women would be allowed to study at universities, but gender-separated classes would be compulsory and female students should be taught by women.
Where that was not possible, he said teaching could be done through streaming or closed circuit television. Read more
While some private universities have reopened, public universities remain closed.
Psychology student Aisa had hoped to use her degree to help the mental health of young Afghans – which she says is a major but poorly understood problem in the country.
But her dreams evaporated when the Taliban took power and she is now in hiding following threats against her family.
Aisa is about to start a health science degree with the People’s University, a US-based organization that offers online courses for students around the world who face barriers to accessing higher education. .
The university offers 1,000 scholarships to Afghan women who can no longer study.
“Without this scholarship I have no opportunity and my future is shattered. This is my last chance to graduate,” said Aisa, whose name has been changed to protect her identity. “It’s safer for women like me to study underground.”
All of her girlfriends back in Afghanistan were forced to drop out of school, she added. Even if the Taliban eventually allowed women to go back to college, she said many would be too afraid to do so.
The People’s University said students only need a smartphone or tablet to take one of its four degree courses – business, education, IT or health sciences.
“These women have no alternative but online education. Most cannot leave the country. We are trying to give them some hope,” said university president Shai Reshef.
SURVEILLANCE
Digital experts fear that the cash-strapped Taliban will not be able to maintain energy supplies, communications networks and technological infrastructure.
Not only could satellite companies and fiber optic providers in neighboring countries such as Iran take services, but the Taliban could begin to spy on and censor communications, said Mustafa Soltany, an IT consultant based in Kabul.
“The Taliban are very likely to put strict restrictions in place, monitor and even spy in the digital arena where they can hunt down dissidents, critics,” said Soltany, who has seen Taliban soldiers ripping and searching people’s cell phones at checkpoints.
But that doesn’t worry Pashtana Zalmai Khan Durrani, founder of the nonprofit LEARN which has enrolled around 100 girls in an underground school where they learn science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) on tablets.
It is working with US financial and technology companies to launch satellite internet to bypass Taliban restrictions.
“I have my bases covered. They can’t do anything even if they try to cut off the internet. We’ll do our own thing,” said the 23-year-old, who is hiding in an undisclosed location. of the Taliban.
Like some LEARN students, Muhammadi and his CTI classmates have worked remotely with global technology companies on application development and graphic design.
This allows them to earn up to $ 500 a month – mostly paid in cash or money transfer – and provide for their families, a feat unthinkable under the previous Taliban regime.
But Muhammadi does not want to stop there.
“It is always said that Afghan women are weak and cannot do anything (…) but I want to prove that we are strong,” she said.
“I want to continue to study and inspire more students … and be recognized as one of the best coders in the world.”
Written by Annie Banerji @anniebanerji, edited by Zoe Tabary. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, which covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org
Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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