A group of little girls sitting on the floor, their backs against the wall. Their heads are covered by a colourful scarf and their faces show an interest in discovering something new, something they may never have seen before. Their eyes are turned downwards, to the pages of the book they are clutching in their hands with awe and curiosity. At first glance, the careful description of this photograph might seem insignificant, even banal. But it gains disturbing force when we learn that these students, eager for knowledge, are among those who will struggle to access primary education, while secondary and higher education remain a mere dream, locked in a drawer. Yes, because in Taliban-dominated Afghanistan, women have been denied the right to education, effectively excluding them from the main centres of education and specialisation. Not that boys are any better off: in recent years, this South Asian country has achieved the lowest literacy rate in the world, and more than half of its population cannot read or write. If you look closely at the photo of the girls with the book, you realise another revolution: the hand that lovingly and kindly hands out the text belongs to a young man of almost twenty-five who has decided to defy dictates, laws and customs and risk his own life. A case more than unique in a country where even major international institutions are trying to change the situation. And where many prefer to resign.
One of the lessons in the travelling school
School without walls
Wazir Khan is an Afghan from Pol-e-Khomri district in Baghlan province, over 200 kilometres from the capital Kabul. A practising Muslim and a model university student, he resents the decision to exclude women from education and hates to see whole swathes of children wandering the remote suburbs of his country without an education, left to fend for themselves. So he plucked up the courage to set up a travelling school with no walls, no desks, no classrooms, no chairs. He carries his blackboard with him like a relic on a pilgrimage, from one remote and impenetrable area to another. His pupils always meet outside, in the dust, when it's cold or when it's hot: but they just don't care, they never miss a lesson, they wouldn't do it for the world. There are a few at the beginning, then more and more, until there are dozens and dozens of them, as the parents and local communities the young university student reaches out to learn to know and trust him, even to the point of entrusting their girls to him. When he was contacted by the Vatican media to tell his story, Wazir Khan explained that it all started "in the east of Afghanistan, in the Bagrami district and in the Khakjabar district, where I started the first campaigns to encourage people to support education and do everything I could to get their girls educated".
Wazir Khan during class
Establishment of the non-profit organization Today Child
The subjects he has been teaching since the beginning are varied: "Besides English, I also teach Pashtun and Dari - the official languages of Afghanistan - and some Islamic subjects. The age of the boys and girls ranges between 5 and 10 years'. In a short time, the fame of this activist with a passion for teaching spread, so he realised that he could no longer do it alone and founded the non-profit organisation Today Child: 'That was in 2022 and since then we have recruited about 30 volunteers to our group: we all work for free and our main goal is to make an impact in the field of education by continuing our travelling schools. We have also recently launched education campaigns to make people aware of how important school is and how crucial learning is." From the very beginning, Today's Child also decided to support girls who want to study "by giving them books and stationery. A fight to assert a denied right that we are now also waging through social media". Wazir Khan and his Today Child are aware that all this activism, especially on behalf of girls, can cause some problems, even big ones. "The government is not helping us, on the contrary. Every step I take can be dangerous. But I'm not losing hope: I will fight alongside the girls so that they have access to education again". One of his goals is to set up specialised study centres for women in all rural areas of the country in the near future: 'It would be nice, just as it would be nice to provide them with online education. It is true that it is risky and causes huge difficulties, but I am not doing anything wrong. Without education, the development of Afghanistan is impossible".
Afghan girls with textbooks
Federico Piana - Vatican City
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