Dozens of Afghan schoolgirls, faculty and staff of the war-torn country’s only boarding school for girls will be evacuated to Rwanda, the institution’s founder said Tuesday, following a Taliban takeover earlier this month. Shabana Basij-Rasikh, the founder of a privately-run School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA) said about 250 students, staff and family members were en-route to Rwanda, through Qatar, to begin a “semester abroad for our entire student body”.
Rwanda’s education ministry tweeted a message to welcome the SOLA community to the country: The school founder said they hoped to resettle temporarily for only a semester and return to Afghanistan when the situation would permit. Afghans have been growing desperate to leave their country, in fear of living under Taliban rule, and thousands have have been evacuated to other countries. The Taliban, which enforced a strict version of Islamic law when they ran Afghanistan before 2001, retook full control of the country more than a week ago. The militants have repeatedly promised a different kind of rule to their brutal regime of the 1990s that saw girls barred from school, women confined to their homes, most entertainment banned, and stonings and public executions used as punishments. But since their August 15 takeover of Kabul, Afghans have grown increasingly desperate to escape the country, with many terrified of facing life under the Taliban.
In addition to Rwanda, Uganda is also considering a US request to take in Afghan refugees, with unconfirmed media reports last week suggesting that Kampala had agreed to host some 2,000 people from the country.
