Before the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021, Deema Hiram helped Afghan girls stay in school, working closely with their parents and communities. Now she advocates alongside other Afghan women to hold the Taliban accountable for their crimes against women and girls.
Deema Hiram tracks the number of days that have passed since the Taliban banned girls from going to secondary school — this month marks more than 1110 days. Every week, she and fellow activist Rahim Jami remind world leaders through social media that girls in Afghanistan still can’t go back to the classroom.
Before the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, Deema was an Education Champion working directly with local communities in Nangarhar, Kabul and Parwan provinces to help girls stay in school. After Malala Fund supported her evacuation from Afghanistan and resettlement, she continued advocating for women’s rights and girls’ education from afar — through digital channels, open letters, conferences and media interviews. Deema, alongside other Education Champions, also joined a growing movement of Afghan women calling for the codification of gender apartheid under international law.
This was not the first time Deema had to leave Afghanistan. War in the mid-1990s forced Deema, then a young child, and her family to move to Pakistan. She was in elementary school when she learned that the Taliban had banned girls’ education in Afghanistan. While life was not always easy for her family in Pakistan, she had her freedom and the opportunity to complete her primary and secondary education.
After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Deema returned to her home country as a young woman, ready to start university. While studying business management and administration at Maryam University, Deema was often the only woman in her classes. During those years, she remembers constantly being questioned about why she was pursuing her degree — by her extended family, neighbours and even professors.
Deema saw how five years of closed schools created a huge education gap for girls in Afghanistan. After graduating from university, she interned at an organisation working on advancing women and girls’ rights and helped girls in her family and neighbourhood catch up in maths and other subjects. Eventually Deema built a career focused on convincing parents, communities and government officials of the benefits of educating girls and helping them stay in school.
While it has been almost three years since Deema left Afghanistan for the second time, not a day has passed where she has not worried and thought about her country. She is determined to be a voice for the girls back home who cannot share their stories. Deema wants those in power to listen to the demands and struggles of the girls who have been deprived of their basic rights and freedom. She wants world leaders to stand by their commitments to Afghanistan — to hold the Taliban accountable for their systematic oppression of women and girls.
Today Deema remains hopeful for the future of her country. Afghan women and girls are not the same as they were 20 years ago. They are more educated, understand their fundamental rights and are not afraid to stand up to injustice. Deema is urging global leaders and the mainstream media to share the stories of Afghan women and girls, remind the world of what is happening to them and push to restore their rights.
