Learning in Distress: Plight of Education in Afghanistan

A panel discussion held via Zoom on Friday, November 19, 2021

Asia Center Seminar, Fall 2021

Panelists:

Kamal Ahmad, Founder, Asian University for Women; President & CEO, Asian University for Women Support Foundation

Shirin Jaafari, Reporter,The World

Sakena Yacoobi, President & Executive Director, Creating Hope International and Afghan Institute of Learning

Chair/Moderator: James Robson, James C. Kralik and Yunli Lou Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations; Harvard College Professor, and William Fung Director of the Harvard University Asia Center

Biographies:

Kamal Ahmad is the Founder of the Asian University for Women (AUW) and leads its strategic planning and fundraising operations as President & CEO of the Asian University for Women Support Foundation. AUW is located in Chittagong, Bangladesh and draws students from 18 countries across the region. It offers a residential, undergraduate program in the liberal arts and sciences with plans for the establishment of a number of graduate schools. Kamal has served on the staffs of the World Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, UNICEF, and the General Counsel of the Asian Development Bank. He is a recipient of a number of awards including the United Nations Gold Peace Medal & Citation Scroll, given by the Paul G. Hoffman Awards Fund; Time magazine College Achievement Award; World Economic Forum Global Leader for Tomorrow Award; and the John Phillips Award from the Phillips Exeter Academy. He is a trustee of Harvard-Yenching Institute; Leadership Board Member of the Beth Israel Deaconness Hospital at Harvard University; and a Member of the Council of Luminaries of Yidan Education Foundation in Hong Kong. He holds a B.A. from Harvard College and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. He is admitted to practice law in the State of New York.

Pashtana Durrani started her journey as an activist and human rights defender. She is now a Community development expert. Focusing on Digital literacy, SRHR, MHM, and WASH. She is the founder and Director of grassroots-level non-profit LEARN Afghanistan. Through LEARN's project Soraya, she has educated 7000 girls and boys in Kandahar. Through Project Ayesha Durrani, she has trained more than 80 teachers in digital literacy. Through LEARN's Project Malalai, Durrani has reached out to 150 girls and trained them in Menstrual Hygiene Management. Durrani received the Malala Fund Education champion award and received a development Fellowship on sexual and reproductive healthcare from Aspens Institute. She is an International member's youth representative for Amnesty International. She is a Board member of the UNDP GEF steering committee. She contributes to national newspapers like Afghanistan times and Kabul times. Durrani is the winner of the Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize for 2021.

Shirin Jaafari is a reporter for The World, a public radio program based in the US. Her reporting focuses on the Middle East and Afghanistan. Most recently, she was in Afghanistan to cover the US withdrawal. Shirin has also reported from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. Before joining The World, Shirin worked for the BBC in Washington DC.

Sakena Yacoobi is a founder and Executive Director of Sakena Fund, a 501(c)(3) organization. She manages grantor and donor relations and fundraises for Sakena Fund and the Afghan Institute of Learning, raising awareness about Afghanistan in the USA and the world. Each year, Yacoobi speaks at numerous events, conferences, and institutions such as the UN, Stanford University, and Oxford University. She particularly enjoys engaging with youth at schools, inspiring them to be globally-minded citizens. She is a respected expert and speaker especially on the subjects of girls' education, life in Afghanistan, health, refugees, and women’s empowerment. Yacoobi serves on several boards and panels including, the Women’s Refugee Commission, International Advisory Council for the International Academy for Multicultural Cooperation, New Global Citizens, the Advisory Council for the Center for Social Impact Learning at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, and is a former board member of the Global Fund for Women. She is an advisor to the Fetzer Institute and a member of the US-Afghan Women’s Council. Yacoobi has 6 honorary doctorates from US universities including Princeton University. She has been honored with: 2017 Sunhak Peace Prize Laureate, 2016 Harold W. McGraw Prize in Education, 2015 WISE Prize for Education Laureate and 2013 Opus Prize, 2012 Lotus Leadership Award, 2007 Gleitsman International Activist Award. She is both a Kravis Prize and Gruber Prize awardee. Yacoobi is a Skoll Social Entrepreneur, Schwab Social Entrepreneur, Ashoka Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education fellow, and was nominated as one of 1,000 women for the Nobel Peace Prize. Yacoobi is the founder and Executive Director of the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL). Under her leadership, AIL provides education, health, and training services to the underserved in Afghanistan. Yacoobi has also established private facilities in the country, including four schools, a hospital, and TV and radio stations in Herat.

James Robson is the James C. Kralik and Yunli Lou Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and the William Fung Director of the Harvard University Asia Center. He has served as the Chair of the Regional Studies East Asia M.A. program. He teaches East Asian religions, in particular Daoism, Chinese Buddhism, and Zen, as well as the sophomore tutorial for concentrators. Robson received his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from Stanford University in 2002, after spending many years researching in China, Taiwan, and Japan. He specializes in the history of medieval Chinese Buddhism and Daoism and is particularly interested in issues of sacred geography, local religious history, and Chan/Zen Buddhism. He has been engaged in a long-term collaborative research project with the École Française d’Extrême-Orient studying local religious statuary from Hunan province. He is the author of Power of Place: The Religious Landscape of the Southern Sacred Peak [Nanyue 南嶽] in Medieval China (Harvard, 2009), which was awarded the Stanislas Julien Prize for 2010 by the French Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres and the 2010 Toshihide Numata Book Prize in Buddhism. Robson is also the author of "Signs of Power: Talismanic Writings in Chinese Buddhism" (History of Religions 48:2), "Faith in Museums: On the Confluence of Museums and Religious Sites in Asia" (PMLA, 2010), and "A Tang Dynasty Chan Mummy [roushen] and a Modern Case of Furta Sacra? Investigating the Contested Bones of Shitou Xiqian." His current research includes a long-term project on the history of the confluence of Buddhist monasteries and mental hospitals in East Asia.