Faces of Education

Street art, Theriou, Heraklion

NOTE Kankor is a national exam in Afghanistan and it determines admission to both public and private universities in the country.

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Tomorrow, the Kankor exam will be held in Afghanistan. From tonight, thousands of boys will prepare their pens, repeatedly check their exam cards, and go to sleep with hope of entering university.  But on the same night, thousands of Afghan girls will cry in silence. Girls who spent years holding dusty books, studying under weak lights, dreaming, and believing their names would one day appear on the list of successful candidates. But now, they are not even allowed to sit in the exam hall.

Imagine a girl who dreamed of becoming a doctor since childhood. She would sit beside sick family members, take their pulse, and say with a smile: “One day I will become a doctor. I will not leave any patient untreated.”  She fought for her dream. While others slept, she studied. She memorized lessons, read biology, and turned pages with love—even falling asleep on her books from exhaustion. She wanted to become a doctor to save lives, to heal children, and to make her father proud.

But today, her books are closed. Her classroom seat is empty. She stands behind a window, watching. Watching boys who can take their future exams, and watching the dream that was taken from her. Kankor is not just an exam.  For thousands of Afghan girls, it was the last hope—for education, independence, and proving that being a girl is not a crime. Now, many homes are filled with silence - books untouched, pens unused, and girls crying quietly at night.

Yet Afghan girls still dream.  They still look at schools with longing eyes. They still keep their books. They still imagine themselves as doctors. But every day, they break a little more. And the most painful truth is that they did nothing wrong - except being born a girl.

One day will come.  A day when no girl stands behind a window in silence. A day when no dream is buried because of gender. And a day when Afghan girls return to their classrooms with books, hope, and smiles. Let her learn, and the world will travel farther than dreams ever dared to go. - Sonya Noor -

Sonya Noor is a student at Afghan Education Action International School.

Sonya’s heartfelt lament brought to mind images I’d seen during my recent travels in South-East Asia. Paintings, etchings and photos of women pursuing education, improving their knowledge, mastering a new skill, rushing off to evening class, expanding their expertise.  

Here are several:

National Language Class, 1959, Chua Mia Tee

National Language Class (1959) by Singaporean artist, Chua Mia Tee. It was painted in the same year that Singapore attained independence from Britain. Eight students – evenly divided by gender – are sitting around a table learning Malay.  Such classes  were part of the push for national unity and a national identity.  There’s no indication as to the time of day but I think it’s evening because the lighting  feels artificial. Despite the fact that it’s later in the day,  their facial expressions  reflect a desire to learn.  The two questions written on the blackboard are beginner level in any language: What’s your name? and Where do you live? They encapsulate the essence of language learning - communicating a desire to understand the other person.

For the Future Generation II, 1954, Lim Yew Kuan

Then there’s Lim Yew Kuan’s 1954 etching For the Future Generation II where a young woman is diligently copying into an exercise book while an electric fan cools the air around her. Again, it seems to be evening. The unseen light source draws our attention to the notebook, the hand that grips the pen and the concentrated set of the subject’s face. Her right arm rests on a cushioned surface suggesting that it’s late and nearly time to leave off studying and get some rest.

On the Way to Evening Class, 1958, Ho Kah Leong

Another work is Ho Kah Leong’s 1958 woodblock print entitled  On the Way to Evening Class. I’ve taught many evening classes over the years and seen the same excited expressions as students revise a previous lesson while hurrying into the classroom. Once more we see women eager to learn and making that time at the end of the day.

Klaus Morgenstern, circa 1970

Next there’s this photograph by the East-German photographer, Klaus Morgenstern. As a photojournalist with Neue Berliner Illustrieter he came to Laos during the 1970s  and captured the faces of the emerging nation. I found this untitled classroom scene posted on one of my social media feeds. Another focused student, lips pursed as she writes up the lesson. We don’t know if she is the mother of the dozing baby but we can sense her determination to be in that classroom.

All of these images show women claiming education through study, persisting in spite of other responsibilities, having the freedom to build their hopes while they follow their dreams. As it should be. Except in Afghanistan it isn’t. In September 2021 the Taliban banned girls from attending secondary school. The following year women were prevented from studying at the post-secondary level. More than 2.2 million girls have been excluded from formal schooling in Afghanistan. The societal repercussions will be devastating.

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