Aug 19, 2026 · 42 min · 11 segments
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…
Shabana Basij-RasikhGuestAmy Davoren-RoseHostAngus HerveyHost
I was in conversation just this morning with an Afghan woman in Kabul city.
not only was her own education disrupted, but as she's been finding ways to continue with her own education, she has started an online school.
She runs a network of volunteer teachers who get online to teach her students.
And we had a great conversation about what she's doing and what next steps might look like for her.
And so I walk away from these kinds of engagements with Afghan women, whether they're inside Afghanistan or in Afghan diaspora communities, with so much hope.
And so I would say, you know, for me, hope as a reminder, yes, but what I will add to it is, especially these days, it is directly linked to the actions taken by Afghan women.
I mean, that just speaks to the power of the work that you have been doing, that there is a young woman who is still at home and still taking this extraordinary risk and so much courage to do what she's doing.
Yeah, and you know, in a way it's always been so much bigger than the work we were doing.
I've heard many times in my interactions with people outside of Afghanistan who have said something along the lines of, you're so brave, you're so courageous.
I've especially made a point of, since Taliban took over again, describing myself as a product of the historic bravery of Afghan women.
Some of them were asking me why I do this work with the consistency that I've been doing this.
And we had these brave Afghan women who took enormous risk to open secret schools, underground secret schools, most often operating them from their own homes, from their living rooms, meaning inviting risk to their entire family so that they could educate girls.
I was in conversation just this morning with an Afghan woman in Kabul city.
not only was her own education disrupted, but as she's been finding ways to continue with her own education, she has started an online school.
She runs a network of volunteer teachers who get online to teach her students.
And we had a great conversation about what she's doing and what next steps might look like for her.
And so I walk away from these kinds of engagements with Afghan women, whether they're inside Afghanistan or in Afghan diaspora communities, with so much hope.
And so I would say, you know, for me, hope as a reminder, yes, but what I will add to it is, especially these days, it is directly linked to the actions taken by Afghan women.
I mean, that just speaks to the power of the work that you have been doing, that there is a young woman who is still at home and still taking this extraordinary risk and so much courage to do what she's doing.
Yeah, and you know, in a way it's always been so much bigger than the work we were doing.
I've heard many times in my interactions with people outside of Afghanistan who have said something along the lines of, you're so brave, you're so courageous.
I've especially made a point of, since Taliban took over again, describing myself as a product of the historic bravery of Afghan women.
Some of them were asking me why I do this work with the consistency that I've been doing this.
And we had these brave Afghan women who took enormous risk to open secret schools, underground secret schools, most often operating them from their own homes, from their living rooms, meaning inviting risk to their entire family so that they could educate girls.
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