Shabana Basij-Rasikh to Speak at 2024 Commencement

The principal speaker at The University of Scranton's 2024 undergraduate commencement ceremony on May 19 will be Shabana Basij-Rasikh, the co-founder and president of the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA), which is the first and only boarding school for Afghan girls, currently operating in Rwanda. Basij-Rasikh will also receive an honorary degree from the University at the ceremony.

"Shabana Basij-Rasikh has demonstrated incredible courage, taking great risk, in first attaining and now providing an education to Afghan girls. She is brave, intelligent and wise beyond her years - and truly cherishes education. I am honored that she will speak to our students and their families at commencement this year" said Rev. Joseph Marina, S.J., president of The University of Scranton.

Living in Kabul in Afghanistan, Basij-Rasikh was 6 years old when the Taliban seized power in 1996. Under their regime, girls were completely forbidden from attending school. Yet in cities and villages across Afghanistan, secret schools began to open to girls whose families were ready to risk fierce retribution at the hands of the Taliban for educating their daughters. The regime's fall in 2001 allowed girls to return to school openly in Afghanistan. Basij-Rasikh attended a year of high school in the U.S. and earned her bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, from Middlebury College in Vermont.

As a student at Middlebury, Basij-Rasikh co-founded the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA) in 2008 with the mission of providing access to quality education for girls across her homeland. In 2012, she presented "Dare to Educate Afghan Girls" at the TEDWomen event in Washington, D.C., where she discussed her life and dream for SOLA.

"I was very lucky to grow up in a family where education was prized, and daughters were treasured," said Basij-Rasikh in the TED talk. She described her grandfather as a "maverick," who was disowned by his family because he insisted on educating his daughters. Basij-Rasikh's mother became a teacher, and her father was the first in his family to receive an education.

"There was no question that his children would receive an education, including his daughters - despite the Taliban - despite the risk. To him there was greater risk in not educating his children," said Basij-Rasikh in the video. "I see students at my school with ambition - grabbing at opportunity."

In April of 2021, when it became evident that the Taliban would regain control in Afghanistan, Basij-Rasikh began preparations to move SOLA to a study abroad program. Within days of Taliban regaining control of Kabul and Afghanistan in August of 2021, 250 SOLA students, staff and family were evacuated from Afghanistan to Rwanda, where the boarding school continues to operate.

"That is what anyone, not just me, anyone can accomplish when you accept the uncertainty of what might be and, with careful contingency planning, turn it into the certainty of what will be," said Basij-Rasikh in a 2021 TEDtalk about her experience with the Taliban's second rise to power in Afghanistan and her determination to continue to educate Afghan girls.

Basij-Rasikh earned a master's degree in public policy from Oxford University. She has received numerous awards, including the 2018 Malalai Medal, one of Afghanistan's highest national honors, recognizing her work in promoting girls' access to education. In 2019, she was named to the Forbes "30 Under 30 Asia" list in the social entrepreneurship sector. In 2023, she received the Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year award from the National Geographic Society; the Joaquín Ruiz-Giménez Prize from UNICEF Spain; and was named an Inaugural Carnegie Distinguished Fellow at the newly-launched Institute of Global Politics at Columbia University in New York.

Basij-Rasikh received honorary degrees from School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London and Cedar Crest College. She is also a contributor to The Washington Post Global Opinions section.

The University's 2024 undergraduate commencement ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. on May 19 at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre.

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