Pashtana Durrani

Pashtana Durrani (born 1997) is an Afghan human rights activist focused on girls' and women's access to education.

Early life
Durrani's family fled Afghanistan in the late 1990s due to the country's civil war and the presence of the Taliban. Durrani was born in a refugee camp near Quetta, Pakistan. Her family valued education; their motto was "You can go hungry, but not without a day of learning”. In their Pakistani refugee camp, her parents ran a girls' school out of their home starting in 2001, and her aunts convinced reluctant families to educate their daughters. In 2013, Durrani moved back to Kandahar, Afghanistan with her family.

Activism
In 2018, Durrani founded LEARN Afghanistan, an NGO which focuses on providing education to Afghan children and women. At the time of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, the organization was running 18 digital schools in southern Afghanistan. Following the fall of Kabul in August 2021, Durrani went into hiding. LEARN Afghanistan resumed operations, although covertly, within a month of the takeover.

In 2021, Durrani was named as one of BBC's 100 Women. In 2022, she was a Young Activist Summit winner. In 2023, Durrani was given a Global Citizen Prize for her work. She has also been named a Global Education Champion by the Malala Fund.

In 2022, Durrani published a memoir under the title ''Last to Eat, Last to Learn. ''

Personal life
Durrani's father died when she was 21, forcing her to become the provider for her family.

Durrani left Afghanistan in October 2021 following the Taliban takeover. At the time, she had been studying political science at the American University of Afghanistan. She has been working as a visiting fellow at Wellesley College since November 2021, and has been studying how to improve the distribution of humanitarian aid and mitigate financial corruption.