Herat Online School was established in August 2021 and offers regular classes online to around 820 students daily. Given the Taliban’s current restrictions on women and girls in Afghanistan, the school has to operate undercover to protect all participants.
A network of over 400 volunteer teachers and administrative staff from around the globe offer education through online classes, with planned lessons and activities taught in Persian. Over 84 different subjects are delivered through live or recorded lessons for convenient access. Lessons are also supported with online educational resources, textbooks, relevant novels, films, texts and documents supplied by volunteer teachers.
Subjects cover a huge range of topics, from maths, science, computer science, English & Persian literature, art, philosophy, women’s health and calligraphy. Students are also provided with pastoral care and support from their teachers and a network of volunteer therapists.
Whilst 70% of students are women and girls, boys are also welcome in classes, to help counter the extremist and misogynistic Taliban curriculum in schools and universities in Afghanistan.
The school is managed by our founder, Angela Ghayour and supported by a dedicated team of administrative staff.
A network of over 400 volunteer teachers and administrative staff from around the globe offer education through online classes, with planned lessons and activities taught in Persian. Over 84 different subjects are delivered through live or recorded lessons for convenient access. Lessons are also supported with online educational resources, textbooks, relevant novels, films, texts and documents supplied by volunteer teachers.
Subjects cover a huge range of topics, from maths, science, computer science, English & Persian literature, art, philosophy, women’s health and calligraphy. Students are also provided with pastoral care and support from their teachers and a network of volunteer therapists.
Whilst 70% of students are women and girls, boys are also welcome in classes, to help counter the extremist and misogynistic Taliban curriculum in schools and universities in Afghanistan.
The school is managed by our founder, Angela Ghayour and supported by a dedicated team of administrative staff.
Herat Online School. Our History.
When the Taliban took control in 2021, activist and former teacher from Afghanistan Angela Ghayour was horrified to witness the devastating attack on women’s rights. She received hundreds of requests for help from previous teaching colleagues and students living in her home town of Herat.
She decided she had to do something.
Recruiting hundreds of volunteer teachers from around the globe, she set up the Herat Online School in August 2021, to ensure that the girls of her homeland could still access their right to an education.
Angela now dedicates her time and energy to supporting and advocating for the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, aiming to keep their hope alive and offer a solution to building peace in the country.
She manages the Herat Online School, under the umbrella of Afghanistan Education Action, which now incorporates the ‘AEA International School’ (formed in 2023) which aims to offer formal qualifications in English for students who wish to pursue higher education.
She decided she had to do something.
Recruiting hundreds of volunteer teachers from around the globe, she set up the Herat Online School in August 2021, to ensure that the girls of her homeland could still access their right to an education.
Angela now dedicates her time and energy to supporting and advocating for the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, aiming to keep their hope alive and offer a solution to building peace in the country.
She manages the Herat Online School, under the umbrella of Afghanistan Education Action, which now incorporates the ‘AEA International School’ (formed in 2023) which aims to offer formal qualifications in English for students who wish to pursue higher education.
Student Story.
I was a member of a football team before the Taliban came to power and closed the schools, and stopped me from playing.
I was depressed and felt that all my efforts had been destroyed in one night. I felt aimless, until my father told me about the Herat Online School.
The school has been a light on my dark life and it has become my hope. I may not play football anymore, but I can learn lots of things that weren’t taught at school and I have learned about kindness. I’m now studying physics and maths and learning python programming language, which I thought was impossible for girls before now. I now understand that it doesn’t matter what the situation is, it matters how I use the situation.
