Shabana Basij-Rasikh
Afghanistan
Master of Public Policy (MPP)
St Antony's College, Oxford
Funding: Oxford-Weidenfeld and Hoffmann-Rausing/Abraham
Born and raised in Kabul, Shabana graduated magna cum laude in International Studies and Women & Gender Studies from Middlebury College in 2011. While still in college, Shabana co-founded the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA), her nation’s first and only all-girls boarding school.
Since graduating from Oxford University, Shabana is focusing her efforts on growing SOLA as well as raising awareness for the 130 million girls out of school today. Shabana is a global ambassador for Girl Rising, a call to action seeking investment in girls’ education worldwide. She received the Malalai Medal, one of Afghanistan’s highest national honors, in 2018; is the holder of two honorary doctorates (SOAS University of London, 2016; Cedar Crest College, 2019); and in 2019 was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list as a social entrepreneur. She is also a Global Opinions contributing columnist to the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/shabana-basij-rasikh/).
“From its beginnings as four students in a rented house, SOLA has grown to become, in 2021, a school of more than 90 Afghan girls in grades 6-11; we will enroll more than 100 girls in grades 6-12 in 2022, and we are currently building a world-class campus for our students in Kabul. My immediate work with SOLA, and my studies at Oxford, have focused my attention on the need to educate the 130 million girls currently out of school worldwide – while my work is centered in Afghanistan, my focus for the future is global.”
