“The most effective antidote to extremism is to create the best-educated generation in Afghanistan’s history. Our girls today – the women of tomorrow – will make that happen.”
– Shabana Basij-Rasikh, SOLA co-founder
Jobs at SOLA
The School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA) is an Afghan-led boarding school for Afghan girls. We’re the first and only of our kind operating anywhere in the world.
Courage. Curiosity. Compassion. Confidence.
SOLA evacuated Kabul upon the Taliban’s return in 2021, resuming operations in Rwanda. Here, we continue to do what no one else does: we draw Afghan girls to us from around the world, providing a rigorous education promoting critical thinking, a sense of purpose, and respect for self and others.
SOLA is the place where Afghan girls can grow to become compassionate, curious, confident women. At SOLA, they become members of the generation who will one day lead a peaceful and united Afghanistan.
Learn more.
Click the buttons below to read about our vision and mission. Take a deep dive into our story from Afghanistan to Rwanda. Meet our founder Shabana Basij-Rasikh, who went from attending secret schools under the Taliban to earning a master’s degree at Oxford. Join us in believing in the future our students will create.
"I will use my education to teach other girls how to be brave, and that they are very important in society. Today, I am here, I am brave, tomorrow another girl will be here and she will be brave like me."
--SOLA student, name withheld for security
Remote learning for every Afghan girl, everywhere.
This is SOLAx.
Our students are Afghan girls who come to SOLA from around the world. Yet, with thousands of applications received for just a few dozen spaces yearly, we know we can never fully accommodate the need for education at our physical campus alone.
That’s why, in 2024, we launched SOLAx: our online academy where students only need a smartphone and basic internet to access daily coursework from their own homes, all using WhatsApp, all completely free.
To every Afghan girl and every Afghan family everywhere: join us. We built SOLAx for you.
“Education is a tool of liberation!”
—SOLA student, name withheld for security
The voices of SOLA.
Our girls, in their own words.
SOLA students are creative, they are artistic, they are thoughtful, and their voices will be heard.
In 2024, in partnership with our friends at National Geographic’s Impact Story Lab, a collection of our students composed letters “To Someone Like Me”: letters to Afghan girls around the world who may be struggling to find access to education. Watch the video, and hear our girls read excerpts of their messages aloud.
Press play to watch, and click the button below to visit our Videos and Podcasts page to see the video with subtitles in Dari and Pashto.
In 2024, it is illegal for girls in Afghanistan to attend school past 6th grade.
We will not look away.
In Afghanistan in 2021, the number of girls attending secondary school was 1.1 million.
In Afghanistan in 2024, the number of girls attending secondary school is 0.
The Taliban have made Afghanistan the only nation on Earth to bar half of its population from receiving an education. Our founder Shabana Basij-Rasikh has urged the world not to look away, and has spoken and written extensively on the bravery of Afghan women and girls: click the buttons below to read her blog, to watch videos and listen to podcasts, and to visit her author page at The Washington Post where she is a contributing columnist.
We are not silent. We will never look away.
