SOLA and Women's Rights in Afghanistan

 

I often find myself dreading school everyday, even wishing I didn’t have to go. Although these feelings are valid, I have gained a new sense of gratitude for my privileges while listening to both Dr. Quimby and the girls in the videos’ stories. Since the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, women are being tremendously dehumanized, and denied their basic human rights. The Taliban justifies their actions using religion, saying that their mission is closely tied to their muslim faith, and the readings of the Quran. However, nowhere in the Quran does it state that women are unworthy or undeserving of a formal education, and the core Muslim values center around honoring God and giving to the community. The Taliban seems to strip women from many of their rights after the age of puberty, which exemplifies the oversexualization of women. It also shows the absolute control the Taliban has over Afghanistan, and the lack of free will women have even down to the clothes on their own bodies. One of the women in the video talks about workplaces asking female employees to send in a male relative to work in their place. Although much less extreme in other places, no matter how overqualified a woman is, she is put at a disadvantage against men simply because of her gender. 

Shabana, SOLA’s founder, mentions her guilt for taking her students and school out of Afghanistan. Although it was necessary, the fact that now the most well educated and greatest potential female leaders are not in Afghanistan, leaving the country to have little to no formally educated women. This however, is not to say that there aren’t great potential female leaders still in Afghanistan— especially considering SOLA’s highly selective admissions rate–- but their lack of formal education unfortunately hinders their potential immensely. Shabana however still has hope that these girls will one day become the great leaders they can be for Afghanistan, stating that she will always remain confident that she, along with her students, will be able to return back to their home.