New Delhi: Afghanistan’s only boarding school for girls has temporarily shifted to the African country Rwanda, announced its co-founder Shabana Basij-Rasikh Monday. This comes just days after videos of her burning the school records of her students went viral on social media last week.
In a tweet, Basij-Rasikh, president of SOLA (School of Leadership Afghanistan), said that the departure of nearly 250 students, faculty, staff and family members to Rwanda was completed last week and they intend to begin a semester abroad for the entire student body.
However, she clarified that the resettlement is not permanent.
On August 20th, I shared that our SOLA community is safe. Today, I want to share a few details as to the form that safety is taking.
Last week, we completed the departure from Kabul of nearly 250 students, faculty, staff, and family members. 1/7
— Shabana Basij-Rasikh (@sbasijrasikh) August 24, 2021
“When circumstances on the ground permit, we hope to return home to Afghanistan. For now, I request privacy for our community,” she said.
The co-founder also thanked the governments of Qatar, Rwanda and the US for their assistance. The students and staff of the school travelled to Rwanda via Qatar.
Last week, Basij-Rasikh had posted a video where she could be seen purportedly burning the records of her students, which she claimed was to protect them and their families from the Taliban.
Nearly 20 years later, as the founder of the only all-girls boarding school in Afghanistan, I’m burning my students’ records not to erase them, but to protect them and their families.
2/6 pic.twitter.com/JErbZCSPuC
— Shabana Basij-Rasikh (@sbasijrasikh) August 20, 2021
SOLA, which means peace in Pashto, began in 2008 with four students and a rented house. Currently, the school, which is recognised by Afghanistan’s education ministry, has close to 100 students and nearly three dozen staff.
Classes in the boarding school were held from Saturday till Thursday every week. The girls boarded on campus in Kabul for the March-December academic year.
Classes in 2021, however, were held remotely because of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the school’s website, the girls studying in the school come from 28 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces and belong to all the major ethnic groups and religions of the country.
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Women’s education under Taliban
The education of girls has been a matter of great concern under the Taliban regime, which took over the country on 15 August.
According to UNICEF, an estimated 3.7 million children are out-of-school in Afghanistan and 60 per cent of them are girls.
Only 16 per cent of Afghanistan’s schools are girls-only and many of them lack proper sanitation facilities.
A graduate from the University of Oxford, Basij-Rasikh founded SOLA when she was a teenager with a mission to provide access to quality education for girls across her homeland.
SOLA planned to operate a boarding school of more than 115 students by 2022 and build a new permanent and secure campus in Kabul.
Meanwhile, after taking over Kabul, the Taliban said that women will be allowed to work and study, albeit under the framework of Islam.
“We are going to allow women to work and study. We have got frameworks, of course. Women are going to be very active in the society but within the framework of Islam,” said Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid.
Also read: Who are Hazaras, the Afghan minority group hated & tortured by Taliban