As the Taliban bans women's education in Afghanistan, a school in New Delhi fights back.

With lessons imparted in Dari and mixed classrooms with no gender segregation, the school offers an idyllic version of Afghanistan in the heart of Delhi for refugee children.

“Dear women, your identity is defined by your ability,” reads one of the several hand-written messages posted by students on a notice board. “Every child is a different kind of flower and together they make this world a beautiful garden…,” reads another post signed by “Rustam Walizada, Class-3”.

A view of classroom

It’s 1 pm on a weekday at the Sayed Jamaluddin Afghan High School, the only such institution for children of Afghan refugees living in India. As children head to their classrooms, past the principal’s room, where a vertical tricolour flag of pre-Taliban Afghanistan is placed on a stand, the lunch-break din soon settles down.

Running out of a rented building on the cramped Masjid Lane in southeast Delhi’s residential colony of Bhogal, hundreds of kilometres from Afghanistan, where the ruling Taliban has suspended secondary and higher education for Afghanistan’s girls, the school is a rare safe space for Afghan children, especially girls.

Starved of funds after the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, the school, with 278 students from classes 1 to 12, was on the verge of shutting down before the Embassy of Afghanistan in Delhi reached out to India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for help.

India does not officially recognise the Afghanistan government though it engages with the Taliban through its embassy in Kabul. Afghanistan’s diplomatic missions, including its embassy in India, do so independently of the Taliban regime.

Sayed Ziaullah Hashimi, first secretary, Embassy of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and a member of school board, says, “After the fall of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, the school faced many difficulties. The situation was so dire that we had to vacate our premises because we had no money to pay rent. We couldn’t pay salaries to our teachers either. There was a possibility that school might have to be shut. That’s when India’s Ministry of External Affairs stepped in and promised to support us. Thanks to them, we have been able to continue to provide education to our students.” Read More On..