Women Educating Women in the Afghan Diaspora: Why and How

Abstract

Much has been written about the current situation in Afghanistan.¹ Rather than review that situation, I will focus on how Afghan women—despite the current turmoil—are educat- ing Afghan girls and women. In response to the rapidly diminishing pres- ence of foreign assistance to both Afghan citizens and Afghan refugees in Pakistan that began in 1995, several colleagues and I formed the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL). The immediate purpose for this organization was to continue support for schools that had been started for Afghan refugee children in Pakistan during the war between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. The majority of these children live in refugee camps that are not of the temporary type existing in Africa but that are as permanent as the villages once inhabited by these refugees in their own country. There are, however, many significant differences—all of which impact on the type, style, and urgent need for education.