For more than two million women and girls in Afghanistan, educational opportunities have narrowed dramatically since the Taliban's return to power in 2021. Afghanistan is the only country in the world that prohibits girls from continuing beyond the sixth grade, even though more than 90 percent of Afghans support their right to learn, according to U.N. Women.
A new partnership between the Keough School of Global Affairs and Woman Online University in Afghanistan aims to expand educational opportunities for Afghan women amid the country’s ongoing restrictions. Founded in 2022, Woman Online University has served more than 20,000 students across 16 academic disciplines, offering nearly 800 classes per week as well as significant mental health resources.
The institutions will work together to expand educational offerings for Woman Online University students through joint courses, research initiatives, academic events and resource-sharing. They also plan to co-host conversations on the challenges and opportunities facing higher education in Afghanistan.
“This partnership is about sustaining educational opportunity and intellectual community in a context where access to education has been deeply constrained,” said Mary Gallagher, the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough School. “And we see, as we have previously, how Afghan students continue to seek out learning in remarkable ways. That resilience is something that we cannot ignore and should encourage.”
Resilience amid adversity
That resilience was on display at a virtual signing ceremony for the memorandum of understanding, where women like Samina, a medical student, shared how the online university had changed their lives.
“When I graduated from high school, I dreamed of becoming a doctor,” Samina said. “I wanted to serve people in my community. Then the doors of higher education were closed to us and I was shocked. What should I do now?”
Samina enrolled in Woman Online University after her father saw a social media post about it. And she is already using her education. Last year, when an earthquake in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province killed 800 people and injured more than 2,500, she used her hard-won skills to tend to people on the front lines.
“I worked alongside medical professionals, providing basic health care services,” Samina said. “At that moment, I asked myself, if I had not received this educational opportunity, would I have been able to help my people like that? Everything I am today, and every hope I have for my tomorrow, began with access to education.”
Raihan, a law student, said that the Taliban’s education ban was particularly painful for her family, since she was an only child. But finding a chance to continue was priceless.
“When education was taken away from girls, I felt that I was not only losing my future, but also the chance to prove that a daughter can be enough,” she said. “But this university not only gave me an education, but also the courage to dream again and believe in myself. Studying law has helped me understand my rights, the rights of others and how I can be a useful person in my community.”
Adeleh Zamani, the university’s vice president for student affairs, said that Samina and Raihan illustrate the resilience of students.
“At a time when girls are being deprived of education in Afghanistan, our university has become a space for them to grow and develop themselves,” Zamani said. “My colleagues and I have gotten to see that these young women are working so hard to achieve their dream and making a future that they have wanted and dreamed about.”
Aref Dostyar, the head of the Afghanistan Program for Peace and Development within the Keough School’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, said that resilience helped inspire the partnership.
“Our goal is to support the incredible efforts and resilience of young women who are striving to acquire knowledge under unprecedentedly harsh, dark and exhausting circumstances,” he said.
Supporting an inclusive peace in Afghanistan
The partnership coalesced after months of discussions that Dostyar coordinated. In addition to Gallagher and Zamani, conversations included Farid Salangi, founder and president of Woman Online University; Erin B. Corcoran, executive director of the Kroc Institute; and Juan Flores Ramirez, the institute’s associate director for finance and administration.
The effort is part of the larger work of the Keough School’s Afghanistan Program for Peace and Development, which facilitates research, dialogue visioning and policy in an effort to help build a sustainable and inclusive peace that protects human rights.
An Afghan-led initiative, the program engages a wide variety of stakeholders from within Afghanistan and its diaspora, along with experts from around the world. It continues to inform global policy and practice, most recently sharing insights amid discussions about the future of the U.N. Security Council mandate in Afghanistan.
An opportunity for mutual learning
The partnership will begin taking shape this fall through new academic offerings for students, including a course on crisis leadership taught by Dostyar.
Gallagher said the collaboration presents an opportunity for mutual learning. While the Keough School hopes to support educational opportunities for Afghan women, she emphasized that Woman Online University has lessons to offer about sustaining learning amid adversity.
“We come to this partnership with deep respect for Woman Online University and what it is building,” Gallagher said. “We have a real openness to what we can learn about educating under constraint, about resilience and about what it takes to sustain learning communities in difficult circumstances. At its best, education expands possibilities and helps people imagine new futures for themselves and their communities.”
Originally published by at keough.nd.edu on June 25, 2026.