Darakht-e Danesh Classroom - Afghanistan

In August 2021, Afghanistan became the only country in the world to formally ban girls from secondary and higher education. Where others saw impossibility, Right to Learn Afghanistan (formerly Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan) saw an urgent call to act. The result was Darakht-e Danesh Classroom — meaning "Knowledge Tree" in Dari — an online school that has become a lifeline for Afghan girls denied their fundamental right to learn.

What began in 2022 as a pilot of just 25 grade 7 girls has grown into a thriving community of 708 students (92% female) across 11 Afghan provinces and partner Digital Learning Centres in Pakistan and Turkey. A staggering waitlist of more than 4,000 students — built entirely through word-of-mouth — testifies to the desperate hunger for education among Afghan girls.

DD Classroom operates quietly but powerfully. Female teachers banned from Afghan classrooms now teach online with moral courage. Male teachers defy restrictive curricula to offer modern, critical thinking-based education grounded in Bloom's Taxonomy. Students receive daily lessons, mental health support, mentorship, and, upon graduation, an internationally recognised high school diploma through partnerships with Ontario Virtual School and Amala Education.

The school's response to adversity has sparked remarkable innovation. When displacement and deportation threats destabilised students in Pakistan, DD Classroom created a hybrid Grade 10 pathway allowing learners to take fewer courses while maintaining progress. When English proficiency became a barrier, they developed an English Bridging Program with diagnostic placement testing and a translanguaging approach using both Dari and English. When internet shutdowns threatened access (including a 48-hour nationwide outage in September 2025), the team prepared alternatives, including LEO satellite connectivity and offline learning solutions.

Students are not passive recipients but active architects of their education. The student-led Literary Club has won international awards, including Harvard essay competitions. The Science Club, Speaker Series featuring Afghan women role models, and biannual feedback surveys all reflect student voice. Families facing economic hardship receive Learning Plus Baskets with books and food staples; students needing connectivity receive devices and internet.

The organisation's impact extends far beyond its own classrooms. As a steering committee member of the Alliance for the Education of Women in Afghanistan, Right to Learn helped develop Learning Quality Standards adopted across 100+ organisations. Through its Shafia Education Access program, it supported 18 institutions and 941 scholars in 2025 alone. Its open-licensed teacher training has reached nearly 1,500 educators globally — even training surgeons in Nigeria.

The organisation's excellence has been formally recognised through prestigious honours: the 2024 Queen Soraya Ingenuity Award from
8 am Media, the 2018 American Library Association Presidential Citation for Innovative International Library Projects, and the 2017 Library of Congress Literacy Award.

Holding consultative status with UNESCO and ECOSOC, Right to Learn Afghanistan embodies the transformative power of education. As one Grade 9 student said, "DD Classroom is not just a place of learning for me; it's a small Afghanistan that is rooted in the hearts of everyone who is learning here." In the world's most hostile environment for girls' education, this school proves that hope, resilience, and the right to learn cannot be extinguished.