Support Afghan Women Scholars!
By Jaana Rehnstrom
Afghan Women Scholars is a new project under The Kota Alliance, established by two enterprising women: Sweeta Akbari, an Afghan woman denied the right by the Taliban takeover to utilize her PhD in Chemical Engineering, further her career, and improve conditions in her home country; and Annina Rautalahti, a nurse, mother, MPH student, entrepreneur, and former Kota intern in Finland.
It aims to increase the number of academic institutions everywhere in the world to invite female scholars and students from Afghanistan to sponsored positions as researchers, or students to complete their educations.
Conditions for women in Afghanistan under the current Taliban regime are dire. Almost all formal education of women and girls beyond secondary school has ceased, as have most employment opportunities for women. The impact of the Taliban’s restrictions on female university students paints a grim picture.
Through the AWS website, universities can contact the team and find women scholars in need of placement at universities abroad. If you have a connection to a university, please inquire about the possibility of inviting a scholar or student, vetted by the AWS team, which has intimate knowledge of the country and means to assess credentials.
Sweeta’s story:
Sweeta and her husband Fahim obtained their PhD’s in Chemical Engineering in Malaysia. They returned to their home country, Afghanistan, with a daughter in tow. With the Taliban takeover, Sweeta found her position untenable. Pregnant with her second child, the family tried to find a way out. Fortunately, they met Annina online. Annina managed to secure a post-doc fellowship positions for the couple at her alma mater, the University of Tampere in Finland. After fundraising efforts abroad, including $2000 raised by Finns in New York, and a dangerous journey overland to Iran, the couple managed to get to the Finnish Embassy in Tehran and secure travel documents and permission to enter Finland. The couple’s son was born in Tampere, Finland in February.
Shortly thereafter, with nagging concerns about women in similar positions back home, Sweeta and Annina set up the website for Afghan Women Scholars, registered it as a charitable organization in Finland, and became a fiscally sponsored project of the Kota Alliance, thus able to receive tax-deductible donations in the US. They immediately began to receive inquiries and have managed to successfully place some women at universities abroad. Also women in refugee camps are eligible. They are convinced there are many more universities that can offer the same.
Let’s help them scale this program up!
Donate here : Fund For Afghan Refugees
Resources:
Advancing Afghan Higher Education
Responding to the Talibans reversal on girls' education
The impact of the Taliban’s restrictions on female university students
