What I really want is to see women in Afghanistan not only be a symbol.
I want women to be decision-makers, not just at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.
— Shukria Barakzai, Afghan MP
I want women to be decision-makers, not just at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.
— Shukria Barakzai, Afghan MP
Rationale & History
Context: Afghanistan Today and Tomorrow
1 Afghanistan has a future. The most effective antidote to the Taliban is to create the best educated leadership generation in Afghanistan’s history. Educated Afghans—men and women—must be enabled to create wealth and fix their country their way.
2 Afghanistan’s current leadership generation is burdened with excess baggage from a lifetime of recurrent conflict. Past and current performance indicates that the country is unlikely to make substantive progress in political, societal or economic reform in the near term. Only a new generation with open, progressive minds, easy access to new technologies, and considerable personal courage will effect lasting change.
3 The academic and personal achievements of Afghan women who have been educated abroad to date provide credible evidence of their ability to assume leadership of the country in the near future.
4 Afghan women have a future. They will return after graduation if given reason. They will use their intellect, integrity, compassion and drive to meet the needs of their country. They are committed to leading their peers out of ignorance and the subservience and poverty that are its inevitable partners.
2 Afghanistan’s current leadership generation is burdened with excess baggage from a lifetime of recurrent conflict. Past and current performance indicates that the country is unlikely to make substantive progress in political, societal or economic reform in the near term. Only a new generation with open, progressive minds, easy access to new technologies, and considerable personal courage will effect lasting change.
3 The academic and personal achievements of Afghan women who have been educated abroad to date provide credible evidence of their ability to assume leadership of the country in the near future.
4 Afghan women have a future. They will return after graduation if given reason. They will use their intellect, integrity, compassion and drive to meet the needs of their country. They are committed to leading their peers out of ignorance and the subservience and poverty that are its inevitable partners.
Why a School for Afghan Women Leaders
_Women constitute more than 50% of Afghanistan’s population, yet they play a limited role in key decision-making processes. There are three female ministers in the current administration. In 34 provinces, there is one female governor, one woman mayor, and one female chief provincial prosecutor. Women make up about 1% of the National Army and Police and 4.2% of the (low-level) judiciary. In 2007, female labor force participation was a very low 21% and in 2008, 17 of the 36 ministries employed less than 10% females.
Afghanistan’s education system ranks among the lowest in the world in terms of educational attainment at every level. In 2007, only 6% of Afghan women aged 25 or older had ever received formal education and only 12% of women aged 15 or older were literate. Among 159,000 students taking university entrance exams in 2012, only 7,000 women passed.
Yet women will be instrumental in rebuilding Afghanistan. Investing in women and girls is “smart economics,” shown to lead to real economic growth in developed and developing countries by delaying marriage, reducing the number of children, and fostering positive commitments to the education of those children. In the 2007–2017 National Action Plan for the Women of Afghanistan, the government recognized that “promoting women’s leadership constitutes one of the prerequisites for building a governance system that is responsive to interests and wellbeing of the citizenry, recognizing that such a governance system cannot be built if half of the population is excluded from taking part in it.”
Afghanistan’s education system ranks among the lowest in the world in terms of educational attainment at every level. In 2007, only 6% of Afghan women aged 25 or older had ever received formal education and only 12% of women aged 15 or older were literate. Among 159,000 students taking university entrance exams in 2012, only 7,000 women passed.
Yet women will be instrumental in rebuilding Afghanistan. Investing in women and girls is “smart economics,” shown to lead to real economic growth in developed and developing countries by delaying marriage, reducing the number of children, and fostering positive commitments to the education of those children. In the 2007–2017 National Action Plan for the Women of Afghanistan, the government recognized that “promoting women’s leadership constitutes one of the prerequisites for building a governance system that is responsive to interests and wellbeing of the citizenry, recognizing that such a governance system cannot be built if half of the population is excluded from taking part in it.”
History
SOLA was co-founded in October 2008 by Ted Achilles, who ran the Afghan Division of American Councils for International Education for four years, and one of his students, Shabana Basij-Rasikh.
Over the years, SOLA has directly or indirectly helped dozens of students, boys and girls, from dozens of provinces obtain scholarships at a value of over $10 million and totaling several hundred scholarship years.
SOLA scholars from provinces including Balkh, Bamiyan, Dai Kundi, Ghazni, Helmand, Herat, Kabul, Kandahar, Kunar, Kunduz, Laghman, Nangarhar, and Parwan have gone on to study at Bard, Bates, Beloit, Bennington, Colorado, Des Moines Area Community College ... at Middlebury, Mt. Holyoke, Smith, Tufts, Williams, and Yale ... in the USA, the UK, Bangladesh, Germany, Japan, Jordan and ...
The roster of student awards and recognition include a number of 4-point students, freshman of the year, president of the freshman class, president of international students, school prefect, young leader, and election to the student-faculty honor code committee...
Over the years, SOLA has directly or indirectly helped dozens of students, boys and girls, from dozens of provinces obtain scholarships at a value of over $10 million and totaling several hundred scholarship years.
SOLA scholars from provinces including Balkh, Bamiyan, Dai Kundi, Ghazni, Helmand, Herat, Kabul, Kandahar, Kunar, Kunduz, Laghman, Nangarhar, and Parwan have gone on to study at Bard, Bates, Beloit, Bennington, Colorado, Des Moines Area Community College ... at Middlebury, Mt. Holyoke, Smith, Tufts, Williams, and Yale ... in the USA, the UK, Bangladesh, Germany, Japan, Jordan and ...
The roster of student awards and recognition include a number of 4-point students, freshman of the year, president of the freshman class, president of international students, school prefect, young leader, and election to the student-faculty honor code committee...
