Learning in the Margins: Lived Experiences, Meanings and Perceived Effectiveness of Educational Alternative Spaces for Afghan Women Post-2021

Abstract

After the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, an Islamist political movement that reimposed restrictions on girls' and women's education in Afghanistan (UNESCO, 2023), Afghan women have faced severe restrictions on their access to secondary and higher education. In response to these restrictions, alternative educational spaces have emerged to provide opportunities for Afghan women to continue their education. These spaces include online learning, language courses, vocational training, and community based educational centers and religious study. Previous studies examined the availability of these spaces and limited studies have explored how Afghan women themselves experience, understand, and evaluate these educational spaces. This study examines the lived experiences, meanings and perceived effectiveness of alternative learning spaces for Afghan women after 2021.

By using an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach, this qualitative study explores the experiences of fifteen Afghan women who participated in alternative learning opportunities after the Taliban took power. Participants were selected through purposive sampling, and data were collected using semi-structured online interviews conducted via Zoom, WhatsApp and writing form.

The findings organized in six themes: (1) From Building Educational Futures to Experiencing Educational Rupture; (2) Living Under Gendered Control; (3) Reclaiming Education Through Alternative Learning Spaces; (4) Negotiating the Opportunities and Limitations of Alternative Learning; (5) Sustaining Hope Through Relationships; and (6) Reconstructing Lives Through Education. This study found that alternative learning spaces helped participants to continue their education, develop new knowledge and skills. On another

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hand, maintain hope, and rebuild their personal and professional identities. However participants also emphasized that these opportunities could not replace formal higher education. Because of limitations like lack of accredited qualifications, practical training and structural barriers.

This study contributes to the understanding that educational alternative spaces work as alternative forms and also as a pathway that sustains educational continuity, agency, identity and hope during educational exclusion. These findings provide useful insights for educators and teachers, policymakers, and organizations to expand meaningful educational opportunities for Afghan women.