Providing Hope To The Most Oppressed Women In The World

Some 2,500 women from Afghanistan have full scholarships to study "underground" at the University of the People, an accredited American on-line university.

A British newspaper this week reported that femicide is on the rise in Afghanistan, where, under Taliban rule, women are being beheaded and their bodies dumped in rivers and streets.

A photograph shows women adhering to a strict dress code that requires them to wear a burqa that covers them from head to toe, with only a panel of netting to permit vision.

What’s the answer to this numbing affront to human rights? One obvious answer is education. And this is why the innovative 100% online and non-profit University of the People (UoPeople) is exciting. It has granted 2,500 scholarships to Afghan women who are banned from attending Afghan universities, cannot leave the country, and cannot afford to attend other online universities.

Some126,000 students from 200 countries, including more than 16,500 refugees, currently study at UoPeople.

According to InsideHigherEd, all of UoPeople’s 1,200 faculty members are unpaid volunteers. Some are retired professors and new Ph.D.s seeking teaching experience. Founded in 2009, UoPeople has no campus but maintains offices in Pasadena, California. The university is owned by founder Shai Reshef, an Israeli businessman and academic administrator.

CEO Shai Reshef says UoPeople has more student refugees than all other universities in the world combined

Maliha, 22, was studying civil engineering at Kabul University when the Taliban took control of her country in 2021 and banned women from attending university. She feared she would be forced to marry a Taliban fighter.

In an email exchange this week, Maliha describes herself as someone who doesn’t “give up on her dreams.” After the Taliban took power, Maliha said she “started studying general books to stay occupied and learn from successful people.” Then a friend told her about UoPeople and she snagged a scholarship to study computer science.

“Despite the challenges faced by women in Afghanistan,” she said, “I am determined to use my education to create a better future.”

Maliha said she could not afford to continue her education without UoPeople. With no job or income, she said, “ making money for my internet and electricity is difficult.”

Maliha said she hopes to teach Afghan girls and women about computers, mathematics, physics and the fundamentals of engineering software. However, the Taliban does not permit in-person teaching of girls at the secondary and college level and, according to Maliha, most Afghan women do not have access to the internet or computers.

“If the restrictions persist,” she said, “I hope to utilize my skills to work from home through online jobs, ensuring that I can contribute while adhering to the limitations.”

Diminished Options For Women

The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan following the United States’ messy withdrawal after nearly 20 years of fighting. Since then, the radical Islamist group has erased 20 years of progress for women.

Afghan women were dismissed from working in the civil service, banned from parks and gyms, and prohibited from traveling farther than 45 miles without a close male relative.

The UoPeople has been accredited since 2013 by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission and is currently a candidate for accreditation from the WASC Senior College and University Commission.

UoPeople students can take limited course offerings at an assortment of other universities, including New York University, Harvard Business School Online, and McGill University in Canada.

Non-scholarship students are charged a $60 application fee and a $120 assessment fee at the end of each course. This adds up to $2,460 for a two-year associate’s degree and $4,860 for a bachelor’s degree.

Two-thirds of the institution’s revenues hail from student fees, and the rest comes from donations from funders such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Intel Foundation.