Teaching for AFSO: Afghan Female Student Outreach

Today's post is by Johanna Stiebert, the current Director of the Centre for Religion and Public Life (CRPL). Johanna is Professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Leeds. This semester she also did some volunteer-teaching for the organisation AFSO. 

This semester I taught a course for AFSO, which stands for “Afghan Female Student Outreach.”  I can highly recommend the organisation and the experience.

A bit more about AFSO

AFSO makes it possible for women in Afghanistan, who are currently denied educational opportunities, to take university-level classes. AFSO’s aim is to build an “academic bridge” between the current situation and the possibility, eventually, for Afghan women to enrol in degree-awarding institutions.

AFSO consists of a small and dedicated board of directors and a team of administrators who help coordinate the ever-expanding collective of volunteer professors from all over the world. Since June 2023, when AFSO enrolled 100 Afghan women and offered 9 classes, the organisation has grown considerably. When I started this year, I was part of a team teaching a total of 800 women and offering 38 classes. All university professors teaching with AFSO volunteer their time, so teaching remains free of charge for all qualified Afghan students. All students in good standing are provided with data cards at no charge to enable access to the internet to take classes. The funds for this are raised through donations.

AFSO is not a university and does not award degrees. It does, however, work with the Open Society University Network to enrol advanced students and create credit-bearing courses. At the end of a course, AFSO gives certificates for completion. These are awarded "pass" or "high pass." Many courses include an English language learning component. All courses motivate students to practise and improve their English. Advanced students can take the English Language Test Preparation course, which includes guidance for the TOEFL and Duolingo exams.

Classes span a range of disciplines – Languages, Humanities, Social Sciences, and STEM. They are aimed at Afghan women who have completed high school and have intermediate to advanced English language ability. Teaching at AFSO is synchronous: professors and students in the class meet online in a real-time setting where there is scope to ask questions and have discussions.

While AFSO cannot give advice or make arrangements for emigrating from Afghanistan, it does offer advising and transition counselling. AFSO also has close relationships with a number of institutions that accept qualified Afghan students, offer scholarships, and sometimes assist with visas or travel arrangements.

My Experience

I first heard about AFSO in a Facebook post; two colleagues of mine, Simon Hewitt and Tasia Scrutton, were going to offer a course in philosophy of religion.

I sent in an expression of interest form – and soon had a session scheduled with Katy Masuga, one of the AFSO administrators. Katy gave me a clear overview and answered all my questions – including "does teaching for AFSO put women in Afghanistan at risk?" – "no" – and "does AFSO proselytise?" – emphatically "no."

I had wondered if there would be demand for any course I could offer. But, it turns out, of course, that Afghan women are as diverse in their interests as everyone else and students did sign up for my course – albeit in modest numbers. I had 9 students, which is a great class size.

My course was called "Women in Ancient Texts, Women and Ancient Texts." The course began with focusing on select women of the ancient world (from Egypt, Babylon, Greece and Israel), exploring sources and how reliable they are. From there, we segued into modern approaches which centre women and gender, including literary and archaeological feminist and gender-critical approaches. Along the way we looked at how sources are infused with ideologies and at such things as literary vs documentary sources, primary vs secondary sources, essentialist vs constructivist approaches.

Before the start of teaching, there was an online orientation and induction, which was daunting and inspiring. It was exciting to see more and more of us appearing on the screen in a mosaic of moving images, showing the many, many people giving their time and commitment to teach for AFSO. Executive Director Amran Fatih spoke of the Taliban and the threat of an internet blackout in Afghanistan – which did transpire right early on in our teaching term but was soon after lifted. Many who had taught before, or who were on the organising committee, spoke of their experiences and gave advice; the rest of us listened.

As teaching was about to begin, there came the inevitable hurdles of online teaching using a new system (typically bamboozling for someone of my age). While preparing lectures for my real job at Leeds, I was now designing a new online course and coming to grips with the AFSO staff handbook. But there was lots of help. The AFSO team was incredibly helpful, responding to questions and addressing glitches. Also, I was assigned a TA, a student volunteer. My TA was the terrific Leonor Walryck.

And then teaching began – for ten consecutive weeks, around one and a half hours each weekly session. That’s when it got real and intensely absorbing and at times very moving. I loved it. Every week we would begin and end with a chat, and in between a lecture, with slides, focused on someone from ancient history or texts (Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, Cleopatra, Sappho, Aspasia, Phryne of Thespiae, Eve, Deborah and Jael). As the class dynamic evolved, teaching and discussion became more and more infused with little snippets of life in Afghanistan. The names on the register became people and the news items from Afghanistan came into new focus – the awful reports of the earthquake, for instance.

Not everyone got actively involved in classes or submitted written work and it’s hard to know why. For some the internet was patchy and some may have enrolled with AFSO primarily to receive a data package, rather than to learn about women in antiquity. Some may have been preoccupied, or uninterested, or found the online format not-for-them. But those who were engaged were incredible – spirited, fun, eager to learn, and ready with challenging questions.

Maybe some of my students will get in touch again. I hope the time we had together was meaningful for them, too, and that it achieved something positive – be that diversion, a sense that the mind is alive and going places, an opportunity to practise English, maybe some solidarity and connection.

Next semester I won’t be teaching but I am staying on with AFSO as an advisor. I hope to teach again in future semesters.

How to get involved

AFSO is reliant on volunteers. They need academics who can commit to and teach a course. There is a great deal of accommodation and flexibility (in terms of teaching time and day and content). Courses should be academically rigorous and should stimulate and hone students’ academic skills. It is important to be adaptable and to encourage discussion. Assessments need to be short and take into account that students attend classes and write comments and assessments on their phones.

Alongside teaching staff, AFSO recruits undergraduates as TA’s (teaching assistants). This is a great opportunity and takes up little time, other than being around for classes, responding to comments, taking the register, and suchlike.

I highly recommend getting involved. For initial enquiries, contact Katy Masuga: [email protected]

I’m also happy to answer any questions.