“The daily reality for Afghan girls and women has become bleak and disheartening under the Taliban regime. It’s not just that their opportunities have been cut off, it’s the profound sense of worthlessness and loss of purpose that now defines their everyday experience,” – those were the opening remarks prepared by Jamila Afghani, 2022 Aurora Prize Laureate and President of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Afghanistan, for “The Right to Education” session held on May 9, 2024, during the Human Rights and Humanitarian Forum in Los Angeles, California. The remarks were read to the audience by the event’s moderator Louise Richardson, Aurora Prize Selection Committee Member and President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, as Ms. Afghani was unable to attend the discussion. 

Other panelists included Wendy Kopp, CEO and Co-Founder of Teach For All; Marguerite Barankitse, 2016 Aurora Prize Laureate and Founder of Maison Shalom; Anna Spain Bradley, Professor of Law and Former Vice Chancellor of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion at the UCLA School of Law; and Shantha Sinha, Aurora Prize Expert Panel Member, Founder of the MV Foundation, and Professor of Political Science at the University of Hyderabad.