Under Taliban rule, girls’ education was forbidden in Afghanistan. However, much has changed since the fall of the Taliban, and now about 8 million Afghan girls go to school. Much of this progress is due to the dedication of impassioned philanthropists like Razia Jan, who founded the Zabuli Education Center for girls in the village of Deh’Subz. When Jan was growing up in Afghanistan, education was free and compulsory for both girls and boys. After Russia invaded Afghanistan, civil war broke out and things changed radically as the Taliban took control of the nation. During this period, she found refuge in the United States.
Nearly 15 years ago, Jan undertook a number of initiatives in her local community to collect items for Afghan widows, children, and refugees. She quickly saw the toll of preferential treatment for boys. Even in orphanages, girls were frequently denied toys so that boys could have them. A Harvard graduate with a degree in education, she steeled her resolve to teach the daughters of Afghanistan. She saw education as the key to regaining the freedoms that women lost under Taliban authority.
Jan chose Deh’Subz in Kabul Province because it had kept the Taliban out and held strong against combative radicals. She called upon family ties to have a plot of land donated and fundraised through her local Rotary Club to construct the brick-and-mortar school. In 2008, the Zabuli Education Center opened despite calls from local authorities who wanted it to be a boys’ school. Jan held fast and explained to them the importance of girls’ education. Teachers at the school do more than educate; they show young women how to express themselves and make their voices heard.
Security remains a primary concern for the school. Guards stand around the structure all day and high walls provide protection for the students. The school currently supports 450 students, many of whom are daughters of local leaders. At the end of the 2015 school year, the Zabuli Education Center celebrated its first graduating class of seven students.