Pashtana Durrani

Pashtana Durrani (born 1997) is an Afghan human rights activist focused on girls' and women's access to education. ^[1]^[2]

Early life

Durrani's family fled Afghanistan in the late 1990s due to the country's civil war and the presence of the Taliban.^[2] Durrani was born in a refugee camp near Quetta, Pakistan.^[2]^[3] Her family valued education; their motto was "You can go hungry, but not without a day of learning”.^[4] In their Pakistani refugee camp, her parents ran a girls' school out of their home starting in 2001, and her aunts convinced reluctant families to educate their daughters.^[4] In 2016, Durrani moved back to Kandahar, Afghanistan with her family.^[4]

Activism

In 2018, Durrani founded LEARN Afghanistan, an NGO which focuses on providing education to Afghan children and women.^[2]^[4] At the time of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, the organization was running 18 digital schools in southern Afghanistan.^[2] Following the fall of Kabul in August 2021, Durrani went into hiding.^[4] LEARN Afghanistan resumed operations, although covertly, within a month of the takeover.^[4]

In 2021, Durrani was named as one of BBC's 100 Women. In 2022, she was a Young Activist Summit winner.^[5] In 2023, Durrani was given a Global Citizen Prize for her work.^[6] She has also been named a Global Education Champion by the Malala Fund.^[6]

In 2022, Durrani published a memoir under the title Last to Eat, Last to Learn.^[6]^[7]

Personal life

Durrani's father died when she was 21, forcing her to become the provider for her family.^[6]

Durrani left Afghanistan in October 2021 following the Taliban takeover.^[8] At the time, she had been studying political science at the American University of Afghanistan.^[1] She has been working as a visiting fellow at Wellesley College since November 2021, and has been studying how to improve the distribution of humanitarian aid and mitigate financial corruption.^[1]