Five years ago, the Taliban banned girls from the classroom. One school refused to stop teaching.

In August 2021, as the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, the staff and students of SOLA, the country’s first and only boarding school for Afghan girls, managed to escape to Rwanda, where they established a temporary campus to continue classes.

Meet Shabana Basij-Rasikh, co-founder of SOLA, and our very first guest on this podcast when we launched in 2023. Five years since the Taliban takeover, Shabana returns to reflect on what has happened since: from Afghan women running secret schools and girls rationing internet data to keep learning to what has become of SOLA’s first cohort and what it means to create a place where Afghan girls have the freedom to simply be “girls who go to school.”

In this episode:

Why Afghan women are continuing a generations-long tradition of secret schools
How the internet has become a lifeline for girls and women inside Afghanistan
What happened to the first cohort of SOLA girls
How SOLA built a permanent new home for Afghan girls in Rwanda
The importance of giving girls the safety to be normal teenagers
What five years of exile, education and resistance can teach us
Why Shabana’s message to the world is simple: “Don’t look away.”

Help keep the doors open for Afghan girls:

👉 Learn more about SOLA
👉 Donate to SOLA
👉 Explore SOLAx

Timestamps:
00:54 Introducing the School of Leadership Afghanistan (SOLA)

03:10 What hope means to Shabana Basij-Rasikh

05:07 The legacy of Afghan women and eduction

08:43 Why the internet is a lifeline for Afghan women and girls

13:10 SOLAx - the online school

18:04 An update on the students of SOLA

21:45 Midpoint Reflections

23:17 SOLA has finished construction on a permanent campus in Rwanda

27:43 The power of partnerships

29:50 The relationship between SOLA and Rwanda

32:18 What the students of SOLA have taught Shabana

35:40 How the story of SOLA expands what's possible

38:31 Final Thoughts

About Fix The News:
Fix The News is a solutions-focused media platform sharing stories from the frontlines of progress - exploring what’s working in the world and the people making it happen.

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Production credits:
Hosted by Angus Hervey and Amy Davoren-Rose
Produced by Fix The News
Audio production: Anthony Badolato, Hear That!

This episode was produced in Australia on the lands of the Gadigal, Wurundjeri and Woi Wurrung peoples.

When the Taliban Banned Girls From School, SOLA Kept Teaching

Fix The News

When the Taliban Banned Girls From School, SOLA Kept Teaching