Afghan schoolgirls to be evacuated to Rwanda

Dozens of Afghan schoolgirls, faculty and staff of the country’s only boarding school for girls will be evacuated to Rwanda out of concerns that their rights will be greatly restricted under the Taliban.

On Tuesday, Shabana Basij-Rasikh, the founder of the privately-run School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA) said that nearly 250 adolescent students, faculty, staff, and family members would decamp to Rwanda to continue their education for the next several months.

“Everyone is en route, by way of Qatar, to the nation of Rwanda where we intend to begin a semester abroad for our entire student body,” she said on Twitter.

The Taliban militants have repeatedly promised to rule in a manner different than the reign during the 1990s that saw girls barred from school, women confined to their homes, most entertainment banned, and stonings and public executions used as punishments.

But since the Taliban takeover of Kabul on August 15, there has been an interest among some Afghans to leave the country.