Pashtana Durrani (b. 1997 close to Quetta, Pakistan) is an Afghan feminist, human-rights advocate, and educator dedicated to securing schooling for ladies in Afghanistan. Born and raised in a refugee camp, she was deeply influenced by her dad and mom—her father, a tribal chief, had opened a women’ college within the camp, and her mom and aunt taught there—a basis that sparked her lifelong dedication to studying.
In 2018, she based LEARN Afghanistan, the nation’s first digital college community, which delivers instructional content material by way of tablets and an offline platform to ladies and boys in underserved areas. By the Taliban’s return in 2021, LEARN operated 18 digital colleges, educating over 10,000 college students and coaching greater than 80 lecturers in digital literacy. It additionally contains applications on menstrual hygiene, reaching a whole lot of ladies.
After the Taliban takeover in August 2021, Durrani went into hiding and ultimately fled to america. Undeterred, inside a month, she resumed operations covertly, creating underground colleges throughout six provinces—Kandahar, Helmand, Daikundi, Samangan, Herat, and Bamyan—educating a whole lot of ladies every day.
Academically, Pashtana was a visiting fellow—and later Worldwide Scholar-in-Residence—on the Wellesley Facilities for Girls, persevering with her work on women’ schooling and maternal well being, whereas pursuing a Grasp’s diploma at Harvard College.
Her work has earned international recognition by means of many accolades, together with the Malala Fund Schooling Champion award, the Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Rising Chief Prize, recognition among the many BBC 100 Girls, the UN Younger Activists Award, and honors from the World Financial Discussion board, the Muhammad Ali Heart, and the Worldwide Management Affiliation, amongst others.
Durrani can also be the writer of Final to Eat, Final to Study, a memoir recounting her journey from refugee to activist and her struggle for Afghan women’ schooling.
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