amna: When the Taliban roared back to power in Afghanistan in 2021, education activist pashtana Durrani - at just 24 years old already had some 7,000 girls enrolled in her organization. The schools were shuttered. Pashtana was forced to flee. And she's now living in exile here in the U.S., still working to educate girls in secret back home. I spoke with her earlier today about her remarkable life story told in her book, "Last to eat, last to learn." Pashtana: It is about the first daughters who
are the last ones, they have to eat last because they have to do all the chores and clean up after everyone. And with me and my co-author we thought about it, they are the last to learn because they have to take care of anyone before they can choose themselves. It is a dedication to all of them. Especially young girls because they are chosen last for everything. Amna: This is your message to all of them. But it is not how you were raised. Your father made sure you were raised differently, why? P
ashtana: A day I was born my dad was like, this is going to be my son. So I had all the privileges of a son. If I was raised as an elder daughter, I would have been raised as one of those girls. I witnessed that throughout my life and consciously I had to make to -- the choice that this is talked about. It was a privileged life and I was raised nicely, talked over everyone, was pretty loud, spoiled. Amna: Even though you spent much of your life growing up in a refugee camp in Pakistan, you made
the decision to go back to Afghanistan. Your father had been going back and forth, and you started an organization so that other girls could learn the same way you did. Tell me about that organization and why that was important. Pashtana: When I was in high school it was the first time I realized we are in a refugee camp, like, this is not the country that we were supposed to be in and discrimination came with it. We were seen differently for wearing a scarf or my father wearing a turban. Most i
mportantly, it was me following him wanting to go back to Afghanistan. I was so crazy in love with Afghanistan. I wanted to go back, but then the first thing I saw, even in our own country we did not have the same rights we were entitled to that the constitution entitled us to. The most important thing, that group a resonated most with was my own cousins. We say in pashto or in Islam that charity begins at home. That's how learning came into being, because I really wanted my cousins to go to sch
ool and access the same education I had or people in refugee camps had. Amna: When the Taliban reclaimed power in 2021, you had to shut down your schools. They banned most girls from going to school after a certain grade. You had to flee because you yourself were targeted, but you're still running the organization from afar. How, how many girls are you able to teach and how are they able to study? Pashtana: It is an effort. In the middle of the night sometimes we are talking to students, meeting
s at 3:00 A.M. But at the same time, it is rewarding. We do a lot of our work in person. More than 300 girls go to school every day, walk to school every day. That is a big thing. More than 30 teachers everyday teach in person, so that's a big deal for me. More than 40 people are employed right now who are doing something amazing like this, which is banned in Afghanistan, but whatever. Amna: Are you worried for their safety? Pashtana: Yes, I get worried and paranoid sometimes and cannot sleep. I
just call them and talk to them. They have become part of the family. It is important because in the next 10 years, I may not be this young to be able to do everything. I want them to have empowerment and have that sort of access to opportunities and become the people that they are. My goal is by the end of like 2030, we have more than 3400 leaders who are all young girls who are all in those provinces, and they lead a movement that could hopefully rebuild Afghanistan from where it has been des
troyed. Amna: What about your goals for yourself? We should discuss -- disclose I was part of the team that did help you evacuate. It took months to get you out of Afghanistan. I met you at the airport in Boston when you arrived. I helped you get settled at wellesley college where you built a life. You graduated, you are getting a master's degree from Harvard. What does the future hold? Pashtana: I want to graduate Harvard, but also I want to build 34 schools by the end of 2025, which is a perso
nal goal. I'm also working on a nonprofit incubator that is supposed to sustain humanitarian efforts and educational efforts in conflict Zones in all different regions of the world, especially middle East and central Asia and south Asia. I have been working with that at wellesley on that, especially focusing on women. And then hopefully I'll continue doing what I do and I love what I do. Amna: What do you think your father I know you lost a few years ago what do you think he , would say if he co
uld see you now? Pashtana: I think he would be extremely proud. At the same time, I wish he could see it and I hope he could see it now. Amna: The author is pashtana Durrani. The book is last to eat, last to learn. Thank you for being here. Pashtana: Thank you for having me. ♪♪
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