Bard College Berlin Student Aisha Khurram: “I had to flee for my education, but refused to leave other Afghan girls to their fate”

Writing for the UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, Bard College Berlin student Aisha Khurram asked “global actors to take a stand for Afghan girls’ right to education” on International Women’s Day. After the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, Khurram fled to Germany, where she enrolled at Bard College Berlin. She was relieved to continue her education, but her attention quickly turned toward her fellow Afghan women and girls. “My excitement at getting the opportunity to resume my studies was accompanied by a deep sense of survivor guilt as millions of Afghan girls were simultaneously being deprived of their basic right to education,” writes Khurram. “For them to survive the ongoing crisis, education is as necessary as food and water.” Calling on the international community to act to assist girls and women in Afghanistan, Khurram asked the world to “put its faith in education and, more importantly, in young women’s capacity for creativity and change, because these two forces when combined possess the power to illuminate the darkness and liberate humanity from the shackles of totalitarianism.”

Post Date: 03-14-2023