The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has reported that it is supporting the relocation of Afghan girls to Rwanda to continue their education, following the Taliban's decision to prevent women and girls in Afghanistan from accessing secondary and higher education. This group of girls was among the first students accepted into the Sola Leadership School, an Afghan boarding school for girls originally based in Kabul, which was forced to relocate to Rwanda after the Taliban's ban.
Sola is the first and only school of its kind, providing a safe space for Afghan girls to obtain secondary education, with a vision of creating a generation of female leaders. The girls' arrival in Rwanda comes after an agreement between the IOM and the Sola School to assist with safe travel arrangements and to transfer the students, who are outside Afghanistan, from their current countries of residence to Rwanda.
The students who arrived in Rwanda were assisted and escorted to the school campus by IOM staff. One staff member remarked, "The students showed great enthusiasm about traveling to their school. During the journey, I gave the youngest girl a pilot's cap and sunglasses. She was incredibly excited and happy. She wore her cap throughout the trip and told me she wants to become a pilot when she grows up."
Shabana Basyg-Rasekh, founder of Sola School, spoke about the agreement between the IOM and Sola: "In March 2023, it will mark a year since the Taliban closed the doors of girls' schools in Afghanistan, depriving Afghan girls of their right to study at the sixth grade. It is very important to me that they now arrive in Rwanda to continue their education, and I am extremely grateful to the International Organization for Migration for helping facilitate their safe travel to our school, where they will be able to grow and become members of a generation of leaders who will one day help rebuild Afghanistan."
