In this episode, our host Dana interviews Gen Z Afghan feminist, activist, and educator, Pashtana Dorani. At the age of 21, she became the head of her family following her father’s passing. By then she had already founded LEARN Afghanistan, the country’s first-ever digital school network. LEARN has educated 7,000 girls in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and trained more than 80 teachers in digital literacy. LEARN also focuses on girls’ health, and has trained 700 girls in menstrual hygiene management. Forced into exile by the Taliban takeover in 2021, she is currently a visiting fellow at Wellesley Centers for Women while continuing to provide education for hundreds of girls in Afghanistan despite the current ban on them from attending school. Dorani is a regular commentator on TV and radio and has been the subject of articles and profiles in PBS, BBC, and Elle magazine. Dorani has also been named a Global Education Champion by the Malala Fund for her outstanding work to advance Afghan girls’ education. The BBC nominated her as one of its 100 most influential women in 2021 and she was additionally included in the #Times100talks in 2022. Dorani is a member of UNGEI’s Feminist Education Coalition, is an Aspen New Voices Fellow and she also received the 2021 Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Emerging Leader prize. She previously served as a global youth representative for Amnesty International and as a board member of the steering committee for the Global Environment Facility. Dorani’s biography, Last to Eat, Last to Learn, will be published in the United States and Italy in 2023.

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