KABUL, AFGHANISTAN: Sofia signs in to class on a laptop in Kabul for an online English course. Said course is offered by one of a rising number of educational institutes reaching Afghan girls and women online.
Sofia’s PC freezes as the teacher asks her to read.
“Can you hear me?” she asks repeatedly.
Her PC restarts.
“As usual,” a classmate sighs.
Sofia, 22, is one of an increasing number of Afghan girls and women who go online as a last resort to circumvent the Taliban’s restrictions on learning and working.
Taliban officials have closed girls’ high schools, universities, and most non-governmental organizations, claiming difficulties including Islamic clothing.
The internet’s growth since the Taliban’s 1996–2001 rule is the most notable shift.
After the 9/11 attacks, few people had internet connection.
According to the World Bank, 18% of the population have internet access after over two decades of Western-led involvement and engagement.
Moreover, The Taliban has permitted girls to study at home and has not banned the internet, which its leaders utilize for social media announcements.
In a country where 97% of people live in poverty, girls and women struggle with power outages, sluggish internet speeds, and the cost of computers and wifi.
Sofia remarked, “For girls in Afghanistan, we have a bad, awful internet problem,”
Once the Taliban seized power in 2021, her online school, Rumi Academy, enrolled over 500 predominantly female students.
The institution has hundreds more applications but cannot enroll them due to a lack of cash for teachers, equipment, and internet bundles, a spokeswoman said.
“Too hard”
After being expelled from university in December, Sakina Nazari took a weeklong virtual language class at her west Kabul house. After struggling, she quit.
“I couldn’t continue,” she remarked. “It’s too hard to access internet in Afghanistan and sometimes we have half an hour of power in 24 hours.”
Moreover, Afghanistan had the slowest mobile internet of 137 countries and the second-slowest fixed internet of 180 countries, according to Seattle-based Ookla.
On Twitter, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has received pleas from Afghans to bring Starlink, a satellite internet service, to Afghanistan.
Sofia also requested assistance from Elon Musk.
“If they would be able to (introduce) that in Afghanistan, it would be very, very impactful for women.”
SpaceX declined comment.
Online schools aim to accommodate Afghan students.
Daniel Kalmanson, spokesperson for online University of the People, which has received over 15,000 applications from Afghan girls and women since the Taliban took over, said students could attend lectures whenever conditions allowed and professors granted extensions for assignments and exams when students had connection issues.
Learn Afghanistan, a non-profit that conducts many community-based schools with remote teachers, offers its curriculum in Afghanistan’s primary languages for free.
Managing director Pashtana Durrani said the organisation also provided radio classes, which are popular in rural regions. She stated she was working with foreign corporations to solve inadequate internet connection but did not specify.
Durrani said Afghanistan needed internet and smart devices.
Sofia said Afghan women had adapted to war and would endure.
“We still have dreams and we will not give up, ever.”
