{
  "id": 5280515,
  "title": "Virtual classrooms organized in Canada offer lifeline to girls under Taliban rule",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/03/virtual-classrooms-organized-in-canada-offer-lifeline-to-girls-under",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-03T08:01:02.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Winnipeg Free Press",
    "slug": "winnipeg-free-press",
    "url": "https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/2026/09/03/virtual-classrooms-organized-in-canada-offer-lifeline-to-girls-under-taliban-rule"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "On a recent summer Friday, nearly a dozen female students from various regions of Afghanistan gathered for an online literature class. The students eagerly anticipated their turn to discuss a story they had read the previous week. The class was hosted by Hazrat Wahriz, a Toronto-based poet and educator.\n\nBefore the Taliban regained control in 2021, these women had previously studied in high school or university, with some having recently earned undergraduate degrees. However, their educational opportunities were abruptly halted when, like millions of other Afghan girls, they were prohibited from attending school.\n\nOnce a week, the group convenes in a Google Meet room for a 90-minute class. In one such session, they explored a short story about a teenage boy's escape from the Taliban. The story's author, Shams Erfan, attended the virtual class from Toronto and delivered a message of encouragement. He urged the women to continue writing, critiquing, reading, and attending online classes, emphasizing that these activities constitute a struggle against the Taliban's ideology attempting to eliminate them.\n\nSince 2021, the Taliban regime has systematically barred women from participating in all aspects of public life, including education, work, and freedom of movement. According to a recent United Nations report, approximately 2.4 million Afghan girls have been denied secondary education, a figure that could rise to four million by 2030. The Taliban reinstated its ban on girls' education during its early rule in the late 1990s, prior to being ousted in 2001 following the U.S-led intervention in response to the 9/11 attacks.\n\nDespite the ongoing ban, virtual and underground schools established by Wahriz and others in Canada have emerged as a vital lifeline for many Afghan girls. Wahriz's non-profit organization, the Network of Community Schools for Girls in Afghanistan, operates a network of secret schools across the country, enrolling over 1,600 girls in such programs. Female teachers who run these underground classrooms receive a monthly stipend of US$100 when funding allows. Despite the risks involved, Wahriz remains optimistic about the impact of his efforts, stating that they are \"a drop in the ocean\" but that when combined with the work of others, they can create a \"sea of change.\"",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}