Dawn
Active member
Khawar was preparing to start medical school in Afghanistan when Taliban fighters swept into the capital Kabul, seizing power and imposing the world’s only ban on educating girls over 12.
Khawar had already bought a pile of textbooks, with dreams of becoming a cardiologist. But three years on, her days start at 4 a.m. for prayers and a long list of household chores.
“My normal days are so different than they were before. I hope that one day everything will change,” said Khawar, who asked CNN to use an alias for safety reasons and responded to questions by text message to “avoid any risks.”
But during her lunch break, she pivots to something different.
For a few hours before resuming her chores, the 22-year-old studies in secret for a degree in health sciences through the University of the People, a non-profit online university based in the United States that allows refugees worldwide, and women like Khawar, to study for free.
Alongside online schools, international efforts are ramping up to educate teenage girls and women, who are all but confined to their homes by a regime that sees them as a subservient underclass.
Some lessons occur in secret locations inside Afghanistan; others are online, on phones and on television and radio. They’re run by different people, but are all designed to reach as many Afghan girls and women as possible.
For the educators, sharing knowledge is a matter of urgency – an uneducated population is much easier to manipulate than one with a secret network of women and girls with the skills and conviction to one day lead the country.
Khawar had already bought a pile of textbooks, with dreams of becoming a cardiologist. But three years on, her days start at 4 a.m. for prayers and a long list of household chores.
“My normal days are so different than they were before. I hope that one day everything will change,” said Khawar, who asked CNN to use an alias for safety reasons and responded to questions by text message to “avoid any risks.”
But during her lunch break, she pivots to something different.
For a few hours before resuming her chores, the 22-year-old studies in secret for a degree in health sciences through the University of the People, a non-profit online university based in the United States that allows refugees worldwide, and women like Khawar, to study for free.
Alongside online schools, international efforts are ramping up to educate teenage girls and women, who are all but confined to their homes by a regime that sees them as a subservient underclass.
Some lessons occur in secret locations inside Afghanistan; others are online, on phones and on television and radio. They’re run by different people, but are all designed to reach as many Afghan girls and women as possible.
For the educators, sharing knowledge is a matter of urgency – an uneducated population is much easier to manipulate than one with a secret network of women and girls with the skills and conviction to one day lead the country.
