This Afghan woman is in hiding but still fighting for women's education

Brut America

She went into hiding after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan.  But activist Pashtana Durrani isn't leaving, instead she's making sure women and girls have access to education.

Transcript

00:00It's not just me at stake right now, it's a lot of girls at stake right now,

00:03and I'm sure they would love to meddle in the lives and the futures of those girls,

00:09but they shouldn't be meddling in the education of those girls.

00:22So women and girls going to school, women teaching in schools, girls going to schools,

00:26that's important for me. If you make a girl miss less than one month,

00:30you cannot recover that easily. That's not possible.

00:41I do get this a lot, you shouldn't be talking, it's your safety, blah, blah, blah.

00:45But then at the same time, there are some things that are important and you prioritize.

00:49You go through all this roller coaster of emotions in just one week,

00:53and then post that, you just have to stand up and start fighting again,

00:59because there is no alternative or no way out to it.

01:02The cases are being plunged off, people are telling women not to return to media

01:24houses to work there, but public spaces are shrinking for women.

01:32How would I believe them if they haven't opened up a school, if the school was supposed to open?

01:55How would I believe them if they were supposed to let the women work? How would I believe them

02:00if they're not asking women, 50% of the country, in whatever the political process they are going

02:06through? They have changed in a sense, they can speak good English, they have a very good PR

02:10system right now, and they are on every news. They are trying to fish for public legitimacy,

02:16they are trying to fish for government's legitimacy. They want that, they want to

02:20be recognized as a government, and they're trying to be conscious of their PR right now.

02:24Girls' education or education in general wouldn't be banned, because they want their image,

02:28but they won't run the schools the way schools are supposed to run, because anyone can claim

02:33that schools are open, anyone can claim that students are going to go to schools, but then

02:37what are you teaching in those schools? What is the liberty that they will be practicing post that?

02:43And also, you can claim that you are teaching them, but then you are teaching them just one

02:47subject. So for that, you have to understand that they might not ban the school, but they might ban

02:54like, you know, academic liberty or academic freedom within that.

03:15I am on several evacuation lists, but no, I don't want to leave as of now that we speak,

03:21because there are a lot of other people who depend on me. And there are a lot of things that

03:25I am supposed to do and continue with my organization, no matter what, no matter where I

03:29am, because that's something that I want to do for the rest of my life. So I'll just stick to that.

03:33I do fear for my family's safety, I do fear for people around me, the people who have worked with

03:39me, the people who have given up on their amazing times to the work that we do. I do fear about them,

03:45about their lives, about their dreams, about their goals, because nobody should be suffering

03:50just because they volunteered or like, you know, work for the betterment of their country.

04:02There were amazing women who have run amazing schools back in the past, and they have

04:07had amazing graduates like Shabana Basij-Raseekh or like, you know, ladies that I look up to.

04:13In the 90s, there were fierce women who had continued working with the

04:17the girls of Afghanistan, and they have run underground schools.

04:29We had a lot of political, civil and social representation. There was a lot of civil

04:34mobility, social mobility. And at the same time, civil society was in charge, and they made changes

04:40and there was a progress. Of course, it was very limited, and it was very elite. I'm not going to

04:44lie about that. And it was limited to the urban areas, but it was still a progress. A step further

04:50is a progress. I just wish we had more sustainable and stable political system

04:55to continue to accommodate these changes and this progress.

05:03It's like, you know, you have a parent that is on deathbed, but you still cling to the hope that

05:07they will recover and like, you know, get back to their lives. So that's what I'm thinking about

05:13Afghanistan right now. I'm just clinging to that hope that they will get back to life.

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