Growing up in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, Shabana Basij-Rasikh and her family risked their lives to send her and her sister to underground schools. At that time, educating women was a crime punishable by death.

Shabana not only became college-educated (a privilege of just 6% of women in Afghanistan at the time) but she went on to found SOLA, School of Leadership Afghanistan, her country’s first boarding school for girls which is breaking the cycle of female oppression and building up a new generation of confident female leaders.

Shabana still operates with huge constraints and needs to be constantly on guard to keep her school alive, not only in these times of Covid, but as a female leader in a country where the gap in power and privilege is still vast.

We welcome you, your friends and loved ones to join this intimate conversation.