What Does Afghanistan’s Vulnerable Internet Access Mean for Women and Girls’ Educational Futures?

“Even short-term internet outages have a profound emotional impact. After having already experienced the trauma of school and university closures, many women and girls saw online education as a source of hope and continuity. Losing access, even temporarily, is a second blow to their educational and personal resilience.”

Mozhgan Wafiq Alokozai, Founder of Eagle Online Academy

On September 29, 2025, the Taliban imposed Afghanistan’s first nationwide internet shutdown, cutting fiber-optic and mobile networks and forcing the country onto 2G speeds. The blackout halted digital communication across all 34 provinces, freezing business transactions, banking systems, and public services that depend on connectivity. For millions of Afghans, it created sudden isolation. For women and girls, it removed the only classroom still available to them.

Since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, girls above grade six remain barred from school, and women are excluded from universities and most employment. In this reality, the internet functions as the last corridor to learning and self-expression. Through online academies and community networks, Afghan women study, meet mentors abroad, and maintain a fragile sense of participation in the wider world.

Although connectivity is now restored, the blackout exposes how precarious that digital lifeline remains. It shows that access to the internet is not just a technical matter but a condition for survival, identity, and connection. Every outage carries the risk of silencing an entire generation of learners. As educators and advocates work to keep these digital classrooms alive, Afghanistan’s struggle for connectivity stands as a direct measure of its struggle for women’s rights.

To understand how Afghanistan’s educators are navigating this fragile digital landscape, we spoke with Mozhgan Wafiq Alokozai, founder of Eagle Online Academy, and Ajmal Ramyar, executive director of Afghans for Progressive Thinking. Both lead organizations that use online education to keep Afghan women and girls connected to learning, even when the country itself goes dark.

Mozhgan Wafiq Alokozai is the Founder of Eagle Online Academy. She is a seasoned serial entrepreneur focused on economic empowerment, workforce development, and education. She is a proud member of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council (USAWC).

Her entrepreneurial journey began in 2004, when she launched her first business—a café in Kabul Women’s Garden. This was the first café run by women for women in Afghanistan. In 2007, to expand opportunities for women entrepreneurs, she established the World of Women Business Market, the first women-led business shopping center in Kabul. The center hosted 33 shops run by women entrepreneurs, selling handmade crafts, homemade food products, cosmetics, and offering services such as tailoring, fitness, and beauty salons. In 2008, together with her husband, Mozhgan co-founded Impressive Consulting, which has since trained over 3,000 women and youth through skills development and workforce training programs.

In 2008, Alokozai also participated in the Peace Through Business® entrepreneurship program at Northwood University in Michigan. Committed to paying it forward, she co-founded and led the program’s alumni association, offering mentorship and training for aspiring entrepreneurs over the past 17 years.

From 2010, Alokozai served as a master mentor and business instructor for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Program at the American University of Afghanistan. She also traveled to the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona to co-develop the program’s business curriculum. Over 11 years, she mentored more than 50 women-owned businesses and trained over 1,000 women across nine provinces in Afghanistan.

In 2016, Alokozai launched her U.S.-based digital marketing company, My Impressive LLC, in Virginia. She has since led several successful projects and was named Best Leader of 2018 by the National Association of Professional Women (NAPW) in the United States.

Ajmal Ramyar is the executive director of Afghans for Progressive Thinking (APT), a youth-led nonprofit organization in Afghanistan. Under his leadership, APT has been at the forefront of addressing human rights crises and promoting girls’ education. He has over a decade of experience leading peacebuilding and advocacy initiatives across Afghanistan and internationally. Ajmal is currently pursuing a master of international public policy (MIPP) at Balsillie School of International Affairs, specializing in global migration and human security. His research and advocacy focus on the intersection of education, youth participation, and women’s rights, with a particular emphasis on amplifying Afghan voices in global policy arenas.

Ramyar also led the Afghan Youth Representative program to the United Nations, advocating for Afghan youth on both national and international platforms. His dedication extends to managing an elementary school for internally displaced children in Afghanistan, emphasizing the importance of education in challenging circumstances. After the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, he relocated to Canada. There, he continues his efforts to empower Afghan women by connecting them with international mentors and advocating for their educational rights. Ajmal is also a member of SDG4 Youth Network, a global platform for students and youth education advocates to take action on SDG4 and engage in shaping global education policies.

In Canada, Ramyar utilizes his expertise in communications and workshop facilitation to raise awareness about the educational and human rights challenges faced by Afghan women. He organizes events aimed at empowering young individuals, especially women, to effect social change through education

For Afghan women and girls, online learning now carries the weight of an entire generation’s hopes. When classrooms close and workplaces ban female employees, digital education becomes the only pathway left to knowledge and opportunity. Two organizations—Eagle Online Academy and Afghans for Progressive Thinking (APT)—stand at the center of this effort, building systems of learning that operate entirely within the limits of connectivity and censorship.

Mozhgan Wafiq Alokozai founded Eagle Online Academy in 2019, years before the Taliban returned to power. Since 2021, the academy has expanded across all 24 provinces, serving women inside Afghanistan and refugees abroad. “Following Taliban restrictions on women’s education, employment, and other opportunities, online learning has become the only viable option for women and girls in the country,” she explains. “It is also an ideal solution for refugee populations in neighboring countries who have limited access to formal education.”

The demand for her programs consistently exceeds capacity. “If we anticipate 100 student applications, we often receive more than 500,” Alokozai says. “Over the past six years, Eagle Online Academy has graduated more than 2,000 women and girls.” Those figures point to the resilience of Afghan learners who continue to enroll despite constant risk of surveillance and blackout.

Meanwhile, Ajmal Ramyar, in his work as executive director of APT, describes a similar reality: “Since the Taliban banned girls from going to school after grade 6 and stopped women from attending universities, many young women have lost their right to learn and grow,” he says. “In this difficult time, digital education has become one of the only ways they can continue learning and stay connected with others.”

APT delivers online workshops, mentorship programs, and skill-building courses through a combination of live sessions, recorded videos, and offline materials. “APT uses online platforms to give Afghan girls access to workshops, mentorship, and learning materials,” Ramyar explains. “Through these digital spaces, they can join training sessions, improve their skills, and talk to mentors and other students.”

Both leaders describe digital education as more than instruction—it is a form of connection. Through group chats, video sessions, and shared projects, women create small communities that restore a sense of identity and purpose. What begins as access to coursework becomes a quiet assertion of presence in a society determined to erase it.

When Afghanistan’s internet goes dark, the consequences extend far beyond technical failure. For women and girls who rely on digital learning, even brief outages disrupt daily life and erode fragile progress.

“Even short-term internet outages have a profound emotional impact,” says Alokozai. “For our students across all provinces, disruptions are deeply disappointing and distressing. After having already experienced the trauma of school and university closures, many women and girls saw online education as a source of hope and continuity. Losing access, even temporarily, is a second blow to their educational and personal resilience.”

Eagle Online Academy operates under constant uncertainty. When the signal weakens or platforms slow, instructors switch to pre-recorded videos and distribute lessons on offline devices. Yet Alokozai notes that this approach cannot replace stable access. “Reaching a large number of learners through physical distribution of videos is time-consuming, costly, and logistically challenging,” she says. “It makes it difficult to ensure equitable access and consistent engagement.”

Ramyar faces similar obstacles at a national level. Many APT participants live in rural districts where connections are unreliable or unaffordable. “Sometimes the internet is slow, expensive, or restricted in Afghanistan,” he explains. To offset this, APT records every workshop, posts the sessions on YouTube, and shares e-books so students can study offline. The organization also provides mobile-data top-up cards and relies on lightweight applications that function even when signals drop. “All of these steps help Afghan girls continue their education, stay hopeful, and feel supported, even in very difficult conditions,” Ramyar says.

The September 2025 blackout exposes how vulnerable these systems remain. Each loss of connectivity isolates learners from teachers, peers, and mentors, dissolving the communities that sustain them. What vanishes is not only access to lessons but the confidence and connection that give education its meaning.

Afghanistan’s educators continue to adapt in ways that defy the limits imposed on them. Even under censorship and poor connectivity, they are building networks that sustain both learning and morale. Their strategies rely on innovation, persistence, and growing partnerships with allies abroad.

Alokozai emphasizes that the survival of digital education depends on collaboration. “Safeguarding Afghanistan’s digital learning ecosystem requires innovation, strong partnerships, and sustained international support,” she says. “Collaboration between local initiatives like Eagle Online Academy, global universities, NGOs, and technology partners is essential to expand access, share expertise, and secure reliable connectivity.”

Her organization is experimenting with tools that help students learn even when the internet is weak or blocked. “Emerging solutions such as satellite internet services like Starlink can help bypass local restrictions, while developing mobile applications that function in offline mode ensures learning continues even during internet outages,” Alokozai explains. “Combined with secure communication platforms, mentorship, and community-based learning networks, these tools can keep women and girls connected, supported, and protected.”

APT applies the same adaptable mindset. Ramyar’s team invests in both academic and emotional resilience. The organization trains female mentors in trauma healing and leadership to support students beyond the screen. “APT is training female trainers in trauma healing,” he says. “These trainers will work with young women across different provinces, helping them cope with the pain caused by the education ban. They will also create healing spaces for others in their communities.”

These programs are producing measurable results. “Twenty young Afghan women supported by APT, who had been banned from attending university in Afghanistan, have received scholarships to study online at universities in the US and UK,” Ramyar notes. “Some of them already received their student visas and are continuing their education abroad.”

APT also creates opportunities for women to publish their experiences and connect with global audiences. “Lots of girls and young women, through their online education and mentorship, were able to publish articles about human rights in Afghanistan,” Ramyar says. “Their writing reached international platforms. This experience gave them the courage to continue advocating for women’s rights, even under Taliban rule.”

Both leaders argue that the future of Afghanistan’s digital learning ecosystem hinges on global commitment. “Long-term funding and advocacy from international foundations and feminist movements remain crucial,” says Alokozai.

Ramyar echoes that view. “Collaboration between global universities, tech platforms, and civil society groups will be key,” he says. “We need safe digital infrastructures, language-accessible platforms, and long-term funding to sustain these spaces.”

Each initiative—from training trauma healers to experimenting with satellite-based access—represents a new layer of resilience. The partnerships forming around them are not only keeping students connected but also preserving an idea: that education, even in isolation, remains an act of collective resistance.

The return of internet access restores a measure of stability, but the blackout leaves a lasting reminder of how fragile Afghanistan’s digital future remains. Each connection that powers a classroom, a mentorship session, or a scholarship application represents more than technology—it represents the survival of possibility.

These organizations’ work demonstrates that determination alone cannot protect these systems. Without sustained investment, innovation, and international support, even the most resilient networks risk collapse under isolation. The organizations that keep Afghanistan’s women online operate with minimal funding, often relying on volunteers and improvised tools. Their continuity depends on whether donors, universities, and policymakers recognize that digital access is now a human rights issue, not just a technical one.

Ramyar stresses that progress will come from empowering Afghan voices rather than speaking for them: “Investing in youth-led initiatives and listening to local voices are important and essential,” he says. “Afghan young people, especially women, continue to think critically, write, and advocate despite restrictions. Supporting their agency is the most effective way to nurture progressive thinking and long-term change.”

Both leaders view education as Afghanistan’s most enduring form of resistance. The tools may change—from laptops to low-bandwidth apps—but the goal remains constant: to keep women and girls connected to learning and to the world. Whether that lifeline endures depends on the collective will to protect it. For now, every lesson that reaches a student’s screen stands as evidence that connection, once restored, can still foster hope.