Sultana Taib: From Kabul to Berlin, as featured in Die Zeit 

Sultana Taib, a fourth-year Bard College Berlin student from Afghanistan, was recently featured in an article for the German newspaper Die Zeit. The piece traced her educational path, from a young girl accessing underground education in a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in the 90s, to earning her second bachelor’s degree in Berlin after fleeing her home country in 2021.

She reflects on her childhood and on the efforts taken by her mother, a doctor, who braved many obstacles for her daughter to receive an education. "Risks were death threats, being arrested, beaten, or snatched away," Sultana says in the article. "It was brave of my female teacher and my mother to take the risk in exchange for our learning."

Sultana proceeded to study at the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, where she found herself during a 2016 Taliban attack in which 13 fellow students and faculty members were killed during the 10 hour siege on campus. She was injured during the attack but remained steadfast in her commitment to education. She returned to the university two years later, in 2018, and remained there until the Taliban takeover in 2021 forced her to flee. 

In Berlin, she has strengthened her resolve to help women and girls back home access a proper education. As part of this commitment, Sultana, who studies Economics, Politics, and Social Thought, is a co-founder of Voices of Afghan Students Across the Open Society University Network (VASA-OSUN), a new civic engagement initiative amplifying the stories of Afghan students across all OSUN campuses.

She’s used tools from campus, her position in the OSUN network, as well as other educational technologies such as Whatsapp and Zoom to continue “advising students from her hometown to enhance their educational capacities and build basic professional skills.” 

Read the full story in Die Zeit.

Post Date: 11-07-2023