How Afghan Girls Are Staying in School, Through Rwanda

When Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021, Shabana Basij-Rasikh burned the school records. Student names, family details and staff identities disappeared in the flames, intended to keep the Taliban from tracing the girls and their families.

“

I am so grateful for the welcome we have received here.

Now the school has found a permanent home thousands of kilometers away in Kigali, Rwanda. Sola, short for the School of Leadership, Afghanistan, was once described as the country’s only girls’ boarding school. Basij-Rasikh and many of its hundreds of students fled Afghanistan, with help that included Qatar, and some eventually settled in Rwanda.

Rwanda’s education ministry publicly welcomed Sola but declined to discuss further details, citing the need for confidentiality. Five school years later, the Kigali campus has a large new sign above its premises. The sign cannot be seen from the street, reflecting the sensitivity of operating an institution that circumvents the Taliban’s ban even outside Afghanistan.

“

We burned the students’ names. Their stories. Their identities. Everything disappeared in the flames.

Basij-Rasikh told AP that the sign represents “a permanent home for the girls.” The Kigali operation includes several hundred students and staff. Through Sola X, an online school operating via WhatsApp, the organization reaches 41,000 students, mostly in Afghanistan and also elsewhere in the world. Financial support has come from donors including philanthropist Melinda French Gates.

“

It shows what this place means to us, a permanent home for the girls.

Demand remains far greater than Sola’s capacity. Basij-Rasikh said the school’s mission is to return to Afghanistan, where the girls educated in exile “will become leaders.” Under Taliban rule, girls may attend school only up to the age of 12.

“

Our mission is to return to Afghanistan.