Hamadony Muzafarov

Hamadony has dedicated his teaching career to women’s education. He has been able to change local attitudes, first allowing girls to complete high school and eventually, in 2014, integrating classrooms, so that boys and girls could learn together. He believes that English is key female empowerment, given that in Tajikistan, some knowledge of the language is necessary to attend university and obtain professional degrees.

To reach these goals, he ran his own language centre from 2006-2016 and has taught in local schools. Since 2010, he has worked in partnership with the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan to teach with the English Access Micro-Scholarship Program, targeted toward children from low-income families. Throughout the year, he facilitates a Girls’ Empowerment Club. Every summer, he runs a Summer Leadership Program and organises a free summer English club for children who want to learn English and leadership.

His first female students have become trailblazers in the community, have confidence, and share their knowledge with other girls in the villages. They have learned English so well that they have competed for highly sought-after slots in American exchange programs. In 2010, he received a grant from the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan to fund his capacity-building work with teachers. As a result, he has been able to conduct significant training for English teachers.

During this period, he was able to create a ‘classroom without walls.’ This means that he was able to connect his students to other parts of the world, teaching skills that are needed in the 21st century while abandoning Soviet-era methods.