Gandumin Magazine Collects Personal Memories of Girls' Education in Afghanistan

The online magazine Gandumin has published an issue devoted to personal narratives from Afghan women recalling their years in school across a century.

Editor-in-chief Beheshta Khorram said the collection was assembled to gather accounts of school days, classmates, teachers, dreams, and memories from different periods.

The first girls' school opened in Kabul in 1920 during the time of Amanullah Khan and Queen Soraya and began with around 40 students.

In the 1950s to 1970s under Zahir Shah, girls' education was active in Afghan cities, with tens of thousands of students taking part in theater, sports, magazine publishing, and debates that included discussion of Darwin's theory of evolution as well as events such as Human Rights Day.

Amelia Najmi, who attended Rabia Balkhi High School in the 1950s, described playing basketball, serving on cultural committees, attending theater performances, and joining a protest after a question about Darwin's theory appeared in a religious studies class.

Soraya Baha and other former students recalled schools as spaces for cultural and political activity, including the publication of magazines that featured revolutionary women.

The accounts also cover later decades marked by political upheaval, war, and religious fundamentalism that repeatedly interrupted girls' education.