Afghanistan Peace Campaign
Every day, Laila attends a classroom that is not supposed to be seen. She leaves home in the morning, goes to a school with no signboard and studies alongside girls who must remain hidden to continue their education.
Five years ago, Laila was 12 and had just entered seventh grade when the Taliban closed secondary schools to girls. Formal schooling ended for her, but her education did not.
A few months later, she found a secret school in her neighbourhood.
Laila is now in the 12th grade at “Invisibles” and is close to graduating. She says the greatest difficulty over the past five years has been the fear that the school could be discovered, students arrested and classes shut down.
Yet those years have also given her opportunities to learn.
She told Afghanistan International: “My intellectual skills have developed greatly, I understand my lessons better, and I have learnt tailoring, which I can use to earn an income.”
For Parasto Hakim, founder of the “Invisibles” initiative, remaining hidden is part of the price girls must pay to continue their education in Afghanistan.
The Invisibles Are Many
Hakim says the programme began with one secret school in September 2021, shortly after the Taliban returned to power. Today, she says, the network operates in 16 provinces, with 35 schools, more than 45 teachers and 1,830 students.
But for Hakim, “Invisibles” is not simply the name of schools that must remain out of the Taliban’s sight.
Girls leave home in the morning without people around them knowing they are going to school, while teachers give lessons behind closed doors in ordinary homes.
Hakim says what initially began as a security necessity gradually became part of the network’s identity.
“Every day, a girl wakes up early in the morning, goes invisibly to school and studies invisibly. The teacher teaches invisibly, and the team works invisibly.”
She says that very condition has become one of the network’s strengths.
“They wanted to define us as a weak force, but we used our invisibility to show what power looks like.”
UNICEF says more than 2.6 million girls in Afghanistan have been deprived of secondary education since 2021. Afghanistan is the only country in the world where secondary and higher education are banned for girls and women.
Under these conditions, “Invisibles” is trying to preserve part of girls’ education outside the formal system.
Students Who Became Teachers
Yalda, 18, graduated from an “Invisibles” school last year with high marks. Her name has been changed for security reasons.
But graduation was not the end of her journey. After finishing school, she set up a class in her area of Kabul, brought together dozens of children and asked the “Invisibles” initiative for help obtaining books and other educational materials.
According to Hakim, initiatives by students and teachers themselves have helped the network expand. More than 2,000 teachers across Afghanistan have also expressed willingness to join the programme and continue teaching their students.
Yalda says that after graduating, she was given the opportunity to work as a teacher through the same school where she had studied.
“After graduating, I got the opportunity to work as a teacher through the same school I had graduated from.”
She says the experience taught her that education is not only a right but something capable of changing lives.
Hosi, another student at one of the schools, had also lost hope of continuing her education when girls’ schools were closed.
“It was unbelievable that we could find an underground school, study there for five years and celebrate our graduation.”
She says security concerns were always present, but continuing their education kept them from remaining at home without learning.
“It saved us from illiteracy. We did not end up staying at home as illiterate girls doing only housework.”
Hosi also began working as a teacher with “Invisibles” after graduating.
Alongside academic subjects, the initiative’s schools teach skills such as carpet weaving, tailoring, digital skills, jewelry-making, design and art.
Hakim says the aim is to help girls use these skills to earn an income.
Education Against a Restricted Future
UNICEF has warned that girls who are out of school face greater risks, including early marriage, child labour and violence.
UNICEF data shows that around 29% of Afghan women aged 20 to 24 were married before turning 18. However, the data alone does not show that child marriage has increased since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
Hakim says that after universities were closed to women and restrictions intensified, the responsibility of “Invisibles” went beyond academic education.
“Our responsibility went far beyond simply teaching. We had to help girls protect themselves from forced marriage, imposed decisions and economic dependence.”
Maryam, a teacher whose name has been changed for security reasons, stayed at home for around six months after the Taliban returned to power. She says the isolation had a negative effect on her mental wellbeing.
Later, children from the neighbourhood came to her home and asked her to teach them. Maryam gradually gathered more students and later began working with “Invisibles”.
She says that during five years of secret teaching she has “felt afraid every day”, but what encouraged her to continue was seeing hope in her students’ eyes.
“The main reason I continued was seeing hope in the girls’ eyes.”
Maryam has now graduated one group of students and is preparing for the graduation of a second.
Saba, 15, another student at the schools, says secret education has given her hope that she can achieve her future goals.
“Every time we fell, our teacher helped us stand up again, stronger than before.”
She says she wakes up every morning motivated to go to school and has learnt from her teachers to set ambitious goals for her future.
A Secret Classroom, a New Choice
Yalda says her secret school was shut several times, but she eventually graduated in 2026.
After graduating, she considered herself one of the luckiest girls in Afghanistan. But that feeling led her to ask why other girls should not have the same opportunity.
That is why she started a secret class for younger girls.
“This experience taught me that education is not only about building the future; it can also change who we are today.”
Yalda now hopes to continue her studies at a leading university abroad and plans to apply for a scholarship.
Hakim says that alongside academic teaching, “Invisibles” holds reading sessions on human rights, human dignity, justice and respect.
She says the aim is to strengthen girls’ ability to defend their rights within their families and communities, particularly at a time when they are being excluded from formal education.
This part of the initiative did not exist when the programme began. Hakim says her own view of the project has also changed over the past five years.
“When I started this work, I thought there was no way the Taliban could last five years. I thought perhaps I only needed to buy the girls some time; perhaps the world would do something to save us.”
But five years later, the secret schools are still operating.
Hakim says Afghan women have, on the one hand, been pushed to the margins by the country’s rulers and, on the other, have felt that the world does not sufficiently see their suffering.
“We were invisibles who were suffering, but somehow we kept going, just as we always have.”
For Hakim, continuing the initiative is no longer only about keeping classrooms open. It is about preserving the possibility of choice for a generation of girls whose usual paths through life have largely been closed.
“If a woman decides to change her future, she can do it even invisibly.”
For Laila, who has spent five years fearing that her school might be discovered and that she could be arrested, continuing her education means preserving the possibility of choosing a different future.
For Yalda, that choice has now taken another form: she is giving younger girls the same opportunity that was once given to her.
The schools may be invisible, and the teachers may work in silence, but inside these small classrooms, girls are preparing for a future they do not want an education ban to define for them.
Hakim says the struggle for the basic rights of women and girls does not always require taking to the streets or appearing in front of cameras.
“The struggle for basic human rights can be invisible and secret.”
Five years after girls’ schools were closed, these small classrooms remain open, out of the Taliban’s sight and with the hope that one day girls will no longer need to be invisible simply to learn.