Afghan Girls Struggle with Internet for Online Classes

Afghan Girls Struggle with Internet for Online Classes

There are a growing number of educational centers trying to reach Afghanistan's girls and women through online classes in their homes.

Sofia is an Afghan student taking an online English course.

But when the teacher calls on Sofia to read, her computer screen freezes. After a while, her computer comes back to life.

"As usual," a fellow student said.

Twenty-two-year-old Sofia is one of a growing number of Afghan girls and women learning online to avoid the ruling Taliban's restrictions¹ on girls' education.

Taliban officials have closed girls' high schools, and barred women and girls from universities. They also have prevented most women from working at non-governmental organizations.

However, one of the biggest changes since the Taliban were first in power from 1996 to 2001 has been the growth of the internet. Almost no one had internet service when the Taliban were forced from power in the weeks following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

The World Bank estimated that, after nearly 20 years of the Western intervention², 18 percent of the population had internet service.

The Taliban administration has permitted girls to study individually at home. It also has not moved to ban the internet, which its officials use to make announcements on social media.

But girls and women face many barriers to learning. These include loss of electricity and very slow internet speeds. Computers and Wi-Fi, local wireless³ internet service, are also very costly⁴ in a country where 97 percent of people live in poverty.

"For girls in Afghanistan, we have a bad, awful internet problem," Sofia said.

Her online school, Rumi Academy, had enrollment⁶ of mostly females rise from about 50 students to more than 500 after the Taliban took over in 2021.

It has had hundreds of additional applications. But a representative of the school said it cannot enroll⁵ them because it does not have enough money for teachers, equipment and internet.

Sakina Nazari tried taking an online language class from her home in the west of Kabul for a week after she was forced to leave her university in December. But she stopped attending after many problems.

"I couldn't continue," she said. "It's too hard to access internet in Afghanistan and sometimes we have half an hour of power in 24 hours."

The company Ookla, based in the American city of Seattle, Washington, measures internet speeds around the world. It said Afghanistan's mobile internet is the slowest of 137 countries.

Some Afghans have started calling on SpaceX head Elon Musk⁷ to introduce his satellite internet service called Starlink in Afghanistan. Starlink is operating in Ukraine and Iran.

Online schools are trying to help Afghanistan's students.

Daniel Kalmanson is a spokesperson for the online University of the People based in Pasadena, California. The school has had more than 15,000 applications from Afghan girls and women since the Taliban took over.

Kalmanson said students can attend classes at any time that conditions permit. He also said teachers give extensions to students for assignments and tests when they face connection problems.

LEARN Afghanistan is a nonprofit group that operates several community-based schools. Some teachers hold their classes online and make lesson plans free in Afghanistan's main languages.

Executive⁸ director Pashtana Durrani said the group also makes lessons available on radio, which is widely used in rural areas. She has been working with international companies to find ways to solve the problem of poor internet service.

"Afghanistan needs to be a country where the internet is accessible, digital devices need to be pumped in," Durrani said.

Words in This Story

awful — adj. extremely bad or unpleasant

enrollment — n. the process by which parents send children to schools or young people are able to attend college

access –v. the be able to gain use of something, usually through a number of steps

extension — n. an additional period of time to complete a job or task

assignment –n. a job, task or especially a piece of schoolwork that is given to someone to be done at a later time or in a period of time

lesson –n. an activity done to learn

1 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

2 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

3 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

4 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

5 enroll   

v.招收；登记；入学；参军；成为会员（英)enrol

参考例句：

• I should like to enroll all my children in the swimming class.我愿意让我的孩子们都参加游泳班。
• They enroll him as a member of the club.他们吸收他为俱乐部会员。

6 enrollment   

n.注册或登记的人数；登记

参考例句：

• You will be given a reading list at enrollment.注册时你会收到一份阅读书目。
• I just got the enrollment notice from Fudan University.我刚刚接到复旦大学的入学通知书。

7 musk   

n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物，香猫

参考例句：

• Musk is used for perfume and stimulant.麝香可以用作香料和兴奋剂。
• She scented her clothes with musk.她用麝香使衣服充满了香味。

8 executive   

adj.执行的，行政的；n.执行者，行政官，经理

参考例句：

• A good executive usually gets on well with people.一个好的高级管理人员通常与人们相处得很好。
• He is a man of great executive ability.他是个具有极高管理能力的人。