Pashtana Durrani: Founder of LEARN on Her Advocacy for Girls Education in Afghanistan
By Meera Dahiya, The Fem Word Contributor
Pashtana Durrani is the founder and executive director of LEARN, a non-profit organization aimed at empowering girls in Afghanistan through education. LEARN provides girls with mentorship and the opportunity to create a sustainable future. Currently, the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, which began in August 2021, has limited girls’ ability to attain an education. The Fem Word’s Meera Dahiya spoke with Pashtana about her own experience with education, her can-do attitude, and how organizations like LEARN are even more important in protecting their right to an education.
Pashtana Durrani, LEARN | PHOTO CREDIT: LEARN
How did your background shape your perception of education? What caused you to start LEARN?
I'm actually a nineties kid. I'm 23 right now. I was able to go to a proper school, a proper learning institution, because my brother very much believed in education and he supported me. Anyways. My living circumstances were pretty much good. I came from a very rich family, I would say, or sort of family that could afford living - housing and everything. So I never had that sort of problem with my life or as a child.
I know there are stories with Afghan women where they have been through poverty. I never myself, I was not a victim of poverty, so I don't want to take up that space. My living circumstances were pretty much good. I started LEARN because as a child, my family started the school when we were kids and it was for young girls. It subconsciously infiltrated in me that teaching was something that my family has done for generations. When I grew up, I never thought, “I'm going to be part of it,” but I became part of it. I started LEARN with my cousin, who was actually unable to go to school and hadn't been able to attain proper schooling for quite some time. And when I prepared her for high school, we enrolled her in a proper school. Even then, she couldn't get proper schooling because of the lack of teachers, lack of resources. That's when we started LEARN, to address the lack of resources, teachers, and everything in between. And that's what we have been focusing on right now. That's why LEARN started.
“I did have my father as a mentor…The person I am, and everything that I stand for, my father has his part in all those things.”
~Pashtana Durrani
What inspired you to start your organization? Were there specific individuals or moments that sparked your interest in starting LEARN?
Well, in all honesty — I'm going to be honest. When it comes to girls' education, I'm not the sort of person who gets, I wouldn't say inspired. I am the sort of person who sees a problem and has to find a solution. That's it. I don't look for metaphors. I don't look for someone to direct me or something like that. I see a problem, I have to address it. That has been my goal all my life. I guess that's what I saw when I saw my cousin, I just wanted to address her issue. I didn't care what was happening around me. My own focus was on finding a solution for the problem. And that's how we started with LEARN.
Over the course of years, of course I have met girls, I have seen how they become the person that they are, and that makes me want to work more and focus more on girls' education. There are no specific moments. It's always all these women in my life who have driven me towards solutions rather than just focusing on the needs part of it. I always focus on the answer part of it or the solution part of it. You could talk about all these problems, but somebody has to find a proper issue and then I found a solution for it. That's what we do at LEARN.
Your organization focuses on mentorship for girls. Did you have a mentor that inspired you in your own life?
When it comes to mentoring, yes, I did have my father as a mentor. He did mentor me for quite some time. I was his prodigy, to be honest, he has focused on everything that I am today. The person I am, the way I talk, the way I have spoken over the course of several months, and everything that I stand for, my father has his part in all those things. To be honest, one thing that was powerful for me is the fact that when he passed away, I remember these old people coming from our village and from our tribe. And the first thing the guy says is, “when you were a kid, your father used to take you out in a car and we can, we used to see and used to be like, ‘why do you take your daughter in a car everywhere you go?’”
He's like, “it's the woman thing,” that was very weird to them. And my father just replied back, “it's not a woman, it's my child.” And I feel like it's very important when we talk about stuff like this, because for my father, I was a child, even if I was nine or ten years old, growing and physically changing. For him, I was a child. I think that inspired a lot of things in the process at the same time. The fact that he left me in the same inheritance that he left my brother, that makes me feel like I was not seen as less than a son. I didn't have that complex at all. I was encouraged to accept myself, my identity, and become the person that I am. Maybe that's the reason that, when it comes to speaking out, I am able to do it all the time. It's easier because I have been encouraged all my life, and that's more important for me.
PHOTO CREDIT: GLOBAL PORTRAIT PROJECT
Can you talk a little bit about how your organization promotes health and STEM learning?
At LEARN right now, we are focusing more on STEM education. We are running this underground school for a hundred girls. We are also having this clinic that functions for women and they give free healthcare checkups, free ultrasounds, free tests, and also drugs, of course. We have been able to cover around 60 patients and we are focusing on around 17 children right now. So for me, to be honest, at this point, it's less about who is a powerful person, is less about who's the political one, and it's also about the fact that every time I remember when I talk to people, they're like, “oh, if I get elected, then I'm going to do this, if I get more money, I'm going to do this for me.” It's never that for me, it's like, I have to take an action — that's it. If ever I have a solution, I have to take action about it. I guess that's my power. That's where I drive my power from. I don't have to be worried about who's going to pay me, who's going to pay the staff. I focus on solutions, but I'm also trying to focus on the practicality of it. So it's much easier for me to focus on solutions. I have focused on sustainable livelihoods, where we have funded whole families for 300 people with just $800 or $600. And it's easier for me to focus on solutions like that. And it's also helpful when you just educate a hundred girls, rather than going into complexities of how the politics around it works. You just do it, that's it — you open up your own, you put in all your resources, you focus on that, then later if the Taliban follow, then you reply to that.
But you always have to have some practical work before you lobby for activism or anything like that. For me personally, as an Afghan woman, I have identity issues that I would never disclose. But as a person, as a woman who has been through a lot, I think it's much easier for me to see the fact that focusing on solutions, getting into action, getting into feel[ing], that's much easier. I guess that will help you a lot.
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