Some stories just find you. This one found me over dinner last week when my friend Amy Hunt mentioned a school called SOLA. She told me it was something I needed to know about, and she couldn’t have been more right. I went home and started reading, and I was immediately pulled into an incredible story of girls, education, and pure defiance.

I’ll be honest, I wanted to reach out and talk to the people at SOLA before writing this, but life and deadlines got in the way. Still, this story is too important to sit on. It doesn’t need me to tell it; it speaks for itself.

SOLA is the creation of Shabana Basij-Rasikh. She grew up in Kabul under the first Taliban regime. When they seized power in 1996, she was just six years old. Girls were forbidden from going to school, and women were erased from public life. For a girl, just wanting to learn was a dangerous idea.

But inside the city’s homes, a quiet rebellion was taking root. Women, at immense personal risk, began opening secret schools in their living rooms. Shabana and her older sister went to several of them, hiding their books in shopping bags and taking different routes each day so no one would get suspicious. Because her sister had to wear a burqa and be accompanied by a man, Shabana would often dress as a boy so they could go out together. Every single day was an act of bravery.

After the Taliban fell in 2001, Shabana was finally able to attend a real school. She went on to win a scholarship to study in the United States, finishing high school and then enrolling at Middlebury College in Vermont. But even as she embraced this new world of opportunity, her thoughts were always with the girls back home.

In 2008, she co-founded SOLA—the School of Leadership, Afghanistan. Her mission was as bold as it was clear: to build a place where Afghan girls could not only learn without fear but also grow into the leaders who would one day rebuild their nation. After graduating with honors, she devoted her life to the school, eventually earning a master’s from Oxford and winning global recognition for her work.

Then, in August 2021, the unthinkable happened. The Taliban returned to power. Girls were again banned from school. Women were forced from public view. But this time, instead of shutting its doors, Shabana made a stunning decision. She led an evacuation of the entire SOLA community, flying them out of Afghanistan and re-establishing the school in Rwanda. Today, it operates as the world’s only boarding school for Afghan girls. Through its online platform, SOLAx, it continues to reach girls all over the world, keeping the flame of education lit against all odds.

SOLA is built on a simple yet revolutionary belief: educated women change everything. They build stronger communities and raise educated children of their own. As Shabana often says, the secret to a peaceful Afghanistan isn’t a secret at all. It begins with letting girls learn.

Amy was right to tell me this story. SOLA is a stunning reminder that sometimes, courage looks like a classroom full of girls refusing to be silenced.

Images and source: www.sola-afghanistan.org/