Support Afghan Women Scholars!
By Jaana Rehnstrom; update 10/21/24
UPDATE: AWS has ceased to exist due to lack of funding. Afghan women need your help more than ever. Please support Sweeta Akbari’s new organization Scholars in STEM.
In July 2022 we partnered with Afghan Women Scholars, established by two enterprising women: Sweeta Akbari, an exiled Afghan woman denied the right by the Taliban takeover to utilize her PhD in Chemical Engineering, further her career, and improve conditions in her home country; and Annina Rautalahti, a nurse, mother, MPH student, entrepreneur, and former Kota intern in Finland. It aimed to increase the number of academic institutions everywhere in the world to invite female scholars and students from Afghanistan to sponsored positions as researchers, or students to complete their educations.
Conditions for women in Afghanistan under the current Taliban regime are dire. Almost all formal education of women and girls beyond secondary school has ceased, as have most employment opportunities for women. The impact of the Taliban’s restrictions on female university students paints a grim picture.
Through the AWS website, universities were offered a means to contact the team and find women scholars in need of placement at universities abroad. If you have a connection to a university, please inquire about the possibility of inviting a scholar or student.
Afghan Women Scholars was registered it as a charitable organization in Finland, and became a fiscally sponsored project of the Kota Alliance, thus able to receive tax-deductible donations in the US. They immediately began to receive inquiries and managed to successfully place some women at universities abroad. They are convinced there are many more universities that can offer the same.
However, despite much volunteer labor, we were not able to secure funding for ongoing work or significant collaborations with universities; it became necessary to give up this effort.
Resources:
Scholars in STEM; more information: info@scholarsinstem.com
Advancing Afghan Higher Education
Responding to the Talibans reversal on girls' education
The impact of the Taliban’s restrictions on female university students
Annina with Sweeta and her family on arrival in Finland.