Aid Afghanistan for Education’s vision is an Afghanistan where everyone is educated and is able to overcome barriers to accessing education. AAE began in the mid-1990s as the Taliban took hold over Afghanistan and prevented women and girls from going to school, responding by organizing a network of clandestine classrooms for girls in Kabul. 

As a new democratic government took leadership of Afghanistan in 2001, AAE registered as a nonprofit organization and opened schools across Afghanistan offering an accelerated curriculum to women and girls who missed out on years of schooling due to war, early marriage, and refugee status. More than 2,500 women have graduated from AAE’s programs with state-certified high school diplomas. Graduates continued on to university, took jobs to contribute to their families, and advocated for peace through education.

Since the fall of the democratic government in August 2021, Afghanistan has been in a state of collapse. AAE’s schools are closed to protect students, teachers, and staff from potential risk. 

AAE is exploring new ways of safely providing education to women and girls in need, determined to navigate these new—but not unfamiliar—political parameters.

Learn more about current challenges to educating girls in Afghanistan in UNESCO’s feature of Aid Afghanistan for Education.