The move came days after the Taliban toppled the government in Afghanistan, where girls and women were barred from education when Islamist militants were last in power.
“Last week, we completed the departure from Kabul of nearly 250 students, faculty, staff and their families,” said Shabana Basij-Rasikh, who co-founded the School of Leadership Afghanistan (SOLA) in the Afghan capital.
The school president said she hoped they could all return eventually. “Our resettlement is not permanent … When circumstances on the ground allow, we hope to return home to Afghanistan. For now, I ask for the confidentiality of our community,” she wrote.
Her messages came days after she reported burning student files “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 following the US-led invasion, many Afghan girls were invited to participate in a placement test because the militants had burned down. the files of all the students to erase their existence. . She wrote that she was one of those girls.
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he was six when the Taliban came to power and was enrolled in a network of secret classes to complete his studies.
Shabana says it was her father who inspired her to go to school, telling her, “You can lose everything you have in your life. Your money can be stolen. But the only thing that will always remain with you, that’s what’s here. And he was pointing his head. And he said, ‘Your education is the biggest investment in your life. Never regret it.’ “
Uganda welcomes Afghan refugees
SOLA’s relocation to Rwanda comes amid the arrival of the first group of evacuees from Afghanistan to neighboring Uganda.
The 51 Afghans disembarked Wednesday morning in Uganda aboard a private chartered flight, according to a statement from the country’s foreign ministry.
The new arrivals will stay temporarily in the East African country before being resettled elsewhere.
Uganda will welcome “Afghan nationals at risk 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 US request, according to Minister of State for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees Esther Anyakun Davina.
