Rwanda: Staff and students of the only boarding school for Afghan girls flee to Africa

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The move came days after the Taliban ousted the government in Afghanistan, where the education of women and girls was banned when Islamist militants last ruled.

“Last week we completed the departure from Kabul of about 250 students, teachers, staff and relatives,” said Shabana Basij-Rasikh, who co-founded the Afghanistan Leadership School (SOLA) in the Afghan capital.

“Everyone is heading, through Qatar, to the nation of Rwanda, where we intend to start a semester abroad for our entire student body,” Basij-Rasikh told series of tweets.

The school president said she hoped everyone could finally go back. “Our resettlement is not permanent … When circumstances on the ground allow, we hope to return home to Afghanistan. For now, I demand privacy for our community,” he wrote.

Basij-Rasikh is highly decorated and co-founded the school when he was still a teenager, “with the mission of providing access to quality education for girls from all over his land,” according to the school’s website.

His posts came days after he reported burning student records “not to erase them, but to protect them and their families.”

Basij-Rasikh recounted how in 2002, a few months after the fall of the Taliban after the U.S.-led invasion, many Afghan girls were invited to participate in a placement test because the militants had burned all records of students to erase their existence. . She wrote that she was one of those girls.

The Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan. What does this mean for women and girls?

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he was six years old when the Taliban came to power and enrolled in a network of secret classrooms to complete his training.

“I was scared. I didn’t want to continue. I didn’t want the Taliban to kill them. My parents, they were always the ones who kept pushing,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in a 2012 interview.

Shabana says it was her father who inspired her to go to school and told her, “You can lose everything you own in your life. Your money can be stolen. But the only thing that always makes you will remain is what is here.And he pointed his head.And he said, “Your education is the greatest investment of your life. Never regret it. “

This experience encouraged her to start SOLA, which means peace in the local Pashto language. In his Twitter thread posted on August 20th, wrote: “As the world focuses on the dramatic, those Afghans who manage to get out, the fire that is there to invest in the education of Afghan girls who have no way out becomes brighter, stronger and more strong”. added
The Ministry of Education in Rwanda he said he was waiting to “welcome the SOLA community to Rwanda for your curriculum.”

Uganda hosts Afghan refugees

The relocation of SOLA to Rwanda comes amid the arrival of the first group of evacuees from Afghanistan to neighboring Uganda.

The 51 Afghans landed in Uganda on Wednesday morning aboard a private flight, according to a statement from the country’s Foreign Ministry.

The US announces new destinations for evacuees as confusion continues at Kabul airport

Newcomers will be temporarily housed in the East African country before being resettled elsewhere.

Uganda will host “at-risk Afghan nationals and other nationals in transit to the United States of America and other destinations around the world,” the statement said.

Uganda will host 2,000 Afghan refugees for three months following a request from the US, according to the Minister of State for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, Esther Anyakun Davina.

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