The Kabul Tribune (KT) — Afghan educator Shabana Basij-Rasikh has donated $2.5 million to establish a permanent scholarship at the University of Oxford for Afghan women, creating an annual opportunity for a student to pursue a master’s degree despite sweeping restrictions on women’s education in Afghanistan.
The Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust announced the gift Saturday, saying the scholarship will cover full tuition, an annual living stipend of at least 21,805 pounds ($29,000) and a 2,000-pound ($2,700) pre-travel grant. Recipients will also participate in a leadership training program.
The scholarship will be awarded annually to an Afghan woman of first- or second-generation descent, with the first recipient expected to begin studies in September 2027.
Basij-Rasikh, founder of the School of Leadership, Afghanistan, said the initiative was intended to provide Afghan women with the resources to shape their own futures.
“This is all we’ve ever asked: not to be pitied or patronized, but only to have access to the tools we need to build our own futures,” she said.
“Another Afghan woman will come the following year, and it will continue, year after year, woman after woman.”
Basij-Rasikh studied at Oxford herself, completing a Master of Public Policy degree in 2019-20 with support from the same trust.
She co-founded the School of Leadership, Afghanistan, known as SOLA, at age 18. The institution became Afghanistan’s first and only boarding school for girls. After the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, Basij-Rasikh helped evacuate the school community to Rwanda, where its students continued their education.
In 2024, she and her husband, Mati Amin, launched SOLAx, a free online school offering classes for students in grades six through 12 through WhatsApp.
By October 2026, the platform had more than 43,000 learners, most of them girls living in Afghanistan, where Taliban authorities have barred girls from attending school beyond the sixth grade.
The scholarship comes as Afghan women and girls face severe restrictions on access to education, employment and public life under Taliban rule. The initiative is intended to provide a route to advanced education for at least one Afghan woman each year.
Applications are open for students seeking to begin their studies in September 2027. However, a British government visa restriction, known as a “visa brake,” currently prevents Afghan nationals from applying for student visas from outside the United Kingdom.
The Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust said the restriction was reviewed regularly, leaving uncertainty over whether prospective Afghan recipients will be able to travel to Britain to take up the scholarship.
The visa restriction presents a potential obstacle to the program’s immediate implementation, even as the endowment establishes a long-term source of funding for Afghan women seeking higher education.
