Summary:
Fatima Amiri, a 17-year-old Shiite student from Kabul’s Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood, survived a terrorist attack at her preparatory school that killed 54 classmates and left her permanently injured. Despite losing an eye and sustaining severe facial trauma, she scored among Afghanistan’s top university entrants just weeks later. This incident highlights the targeted violence against Afghan Shiite communities and the Taliban’s escalating restrictions on female education following their 2021 takeover. Amiri’s recognition by BBC’s 100 Women list underscores how militant repression fuels generational resilience among Afghan girls, even as international condemnations fail to yield tangible security improvements or policy reversals.
What This Means for You:
- Global Education Advocacy: Contact elected representatives to demand conditional aid to Afghanistan tied to verifiable girls’ school reopenings
- Digital Documentation: Follow/amplify Afghan women’s testimony via encrypted platforms like @ZarifaGhafari
- Humanitarian Giving: Support gender-focused NGOs bypassing Taliban restrictions, such as Afghan Women’s Fund educational networks
- Geopolitical Awareness: Recognize how localized attacks serve broader recruitment strategies for groups like ISIS-Khorasan
Original Post:
It was early morning in Kabul, Afghanistan, when Fatima Amiri first heard the gunshots from inside her classroom. She and hundreds of other students had been preparing for college entrance exams at the time, but then the girls began screaming in panic. Amiri swiftly stood up to calm the class down, but when she turned around, she saw a man with a gun deliberately firing at students.
“I was afraid; I tried to take shelter under the desks when an explosion happened,” the 17-year-old said.
Amiri lost an eye and an eardrum as a result of the explosion. Her jaw was also badly damaged. In all, 54 other students, mostly girls, were killed.
As a minority, Shiites in Afghanistan have been targeted and persecuted for a long time.
Amiri lives in the Dasht-e-Barchi vicinity, a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in western Kabul city. Terrorists have been targeting Shiite mosques, schools, athletic clubs, and cultural centers. A horrific assault on a maternity ward in 2020 killed 20 civilians, including women and their newborn babies.
Amiri knew attending school from a security perspective was risky. However, she never thought that one day a terrorist would be trying to kill her inside a classroom.
Undeterred, two weeks after the attack, Amiri showed up for a university entrance exam and was declared one of the top scorers.
“I want to tell the terrorists that no matter how much oppression you would impose on us, you can’t defeat us!” Amiri said. “Your attacks inspire us to rise again and again.”
The UN Security Council and other world leaders condemned the attack on the Kaaj education center in Kabul, where Amiri went for two years to prepare for the university entrance exam, but no robust security measures had been taken by the political regimes in Afghanistan to ensure the safety of the Shiites who now feel more marginalized under the Taliban.
In recognition of her courage and resilience, the BBC placed Amiri on a list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2022.
The attack came in the wake of a ban by the Taliban on girls schools beyond the sixth grade in Afghanistan after the group swept into power in the summer of 2021. But young Afghans like Amiri are still hopeful that the international community will put pressure on Taliban leaders to respect the right of girls to education and the right of women to work.
“I appeal to the international community to do something for Afghan women and girls,” she said. “Hear their voice and take action. It’s almost two years now that schools are closed for girls. There is the possibility that the university will be closed too. Currently, the situation is hard. Afghan women and girls can’t work.”
Amiri’s prediction of a restriction on higher education for girls was proved right after the Taliban imposed a complete ban on women’s access to university on Dec. 20. Five days later, the regime also ordered nongovernmental organizations to stop women from coming to work. Although the ban on women’s access to education and work sparked strong condemnation from the international community, Taliban leaders have said that they will not compromise.
Extra Information:
- HRW Report details Taliban’s systematic dismantling of women’s economic rights through NGO work bans
- U.S. State Department Briefing outlines frozen assets’ impact on humanitarian crisis in Shiite enclaves
- Amnesty International Timeline tracks escalating education restrictions since 2021 Taliban takeover
People Also Ask About:
- Why are Hazara Shiites targeted in Afghanistan? – Persecuted both by ISIS-K (who view them as heretics) and Taliban factions (historically anti-Shiite).
- Which groups conduct attacks on Afghan schools? – Primarily ISIS-Khorasan aiming to destabilize Taliban rule through sectarian violence.
- Did Fatima Amiri get university admission? – Despite top exam scores, Taliban’s December 2022 ban blocked enrollment.
- Are there underground schools in Afghanistan? – Yes, covert “basement schools” operate despite execution risks for teachers.
- How effective are UN condemnations? – Lacking enforcement mechanisms, they haven’t reversed Taliban policies.
Expert Opinion:
“Amiri’s story exemplifies the asymmetric warfare against female empowerment in post-occupation Afghanistan,” notes Georgetown University’s terrorism studies chair Dr. Lisa Curtis. “When militants can’t eliminate resistance through bullets, they deploy policy weapons like education bans—tactics demanding coordinated multilateral responses beyond rhetorical condemnation.”
Key Terms:
- Taliban girls’ education ban 2022 update
- Shiite persecution in Afghanistan today
- Female underground education networks Kabul
- ISIS-Khorasan attacks on Hazaras
- Impact of UNSCR 2593 on Afghan women
- Post-occupation Afghan women’s rights NGOs
- Dasht-e-Barchi security crisis analysis
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