Seetarah is a student-led organization on a mission to educate young Afghan girls. It was formed in the summer of 2024 by Bahara Nazari, the Wildcat Tales editor in chief. Nazari aims to support the girls who don’t have the same opportunities she has.
The reason for the development of this new organization is because what is happening in Afghanistan.
In 2021, the Taliban took control of the Afghan government following the United States’ withdrawal from the then ongoing war. Since the Taliban’s takeover, new laws have been implemented to limit and even ban the education of girls.
“My mother had told me she was going back to Afghanistan to visit family, and I asked to go with her. That’s when I learned the extent of the injustice of my cousins and other girls in the village, which made me feel obligated to do something for them while I was there,” Nazari said.
Due to these restrictions, the country has a severe decline in literacy and unemployment rates, disproportionately for women. This has severely stripped Afghan women of their place in society. According to UN Women, this change in Afghan legislation critically decreased valuable human capital by hindering many women’s futures, women’s domestic safety by stripping away their rights and protections, and the stability of the healthcare sector by preventing further medical education for women. Not only does the Taliban takeover affect the present, it also affects the very future of the country.
However, Seetarah is on a mission to help solve this issue.
“We raised money and bought the girls their supplies, along with lessons every day of the month I was there. We had around twenty-five girls whom we were teaching, plus fifteen kids under the age of twelve. I tried helping with teaching them while I was there, and once a week, when I got back to the U.S., through Google Meets. We still are teaching them, actually,” Nazari added.
Despite the inevitable roadblocks of managing such an honorable organization, Nazari and her team of volunteers work diligently to help these girls receive a fair education, even when they are on the opposite side of the world.
“I teach them on Google Meets once a week, we have two to five assignments every week that other volunteers and I grade,” Nazari added, “The most difficult part is definitely getting them on Google Meets. The internet there obviously isn’t the best, and getting them to have access to the internet is also difficult. There really is nothing we can do about the lack of internet service there, just provide more resources for when they do have internet.”
Even when the government tries to stop people like Nazari from helping these girls, she still persists knowing that they cannot stop everyone and have faith in her students to power through these challenges to learn and grow academically.
“The Taliban also recently completely turned off the internet for the entire country last month, so that was also an issue. They have been really adamant on not letting any girl after sixth grade have any education, and they know of online education happening in the country,” Nazari said, “that’s why they sometimes do purposeful internet blackouts across the nation just to stop it. But obviously, they don’t have the technology to stop everyone, so we can continue as long as they fail at that.”
Just like Nazari, there have been many notable women in history who have fought for universal educational rights for women. An example would be Malala Yousafzai, who has fought for similar educational rights in impoverished countries and is whom Nazari looks up to.
“Malala Yousafzai was actually my idol when I was younger. She was fighting for the same cause I felt so deeply on, and her work with education rights in South Asia and Central Asia really is amazing.”
Yousafzai is a very well-known Pakistani woman who fought for women’s education rights in Pakistan and is revered for her bravery to stand up in a hostile environment. Despite Yousafzai having finished her own education, she still continues her fight for the education of women. Nazari, hoping to make a profound change in her country like Yousafzai, also plans to continue after graduating from high school and beyond to adulthood.
“I plan on continuing Seetarah as it wouldn’t be possible to just stop after graduation. I already promised these girls the right to education, and I can’t just stop because I’m going into another stage in my life. The other members who help out as well wouldn’t want it to stop either, as the amount of time we have put into it would just make it all a waste.”
Even after finishing her compulsory education, Nazari still plans to be in school. Except, not as a student, but as a teacher for hopeful and determined girls on the other side of the world, wanting to strive and go beyond the limitations of their environment.
