City of Knowledge (CKO) — formerly Promoting Women’s Capability by Education Center — is an education center for girls and women in Kabul, Afghanistan where women turn their pain to power. Rising in the face of four decades of war that has left a huge population of Afghan women illiterate and several generations of women deprived of education, City of Knowledge is an education center for girls and women that offers courses in Computers, Science, Literacy, Arts, English, and Women’s rights. Graduates go on to pursue university and the careers of their choice, becoming the future doctors, engineers, lawyers, scientists, artists, and technical experts of Afghanistan, and inspiring countless others to do the same.
Following is an update from the City of Knowledge —
The City of Knowledge is thriving and preparing for the new academic year. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and because of closure of schools for better part of a year, the Ministry of Education promoted all of the students to the next grade without proper examination, which has impacted their ability to stay up to date with their classes. The course is preparing for a large influx of new students who are seeking help to stay up to date.
The women of the educational center rose with the millions of women around the world, and raised their voice against oppression and ignorance in Afghanistan.
These girls and women brave the daily bloodshed and explosions to attend the center in hopes of having a bright future. This center is a ray of hope for the young girls and women whose every day is a struggle against the overall deteriorating situation, domestic violence and oppression, poverty and hardships of life in a war ridden country, and the patriarchal suppression of the society.
Currently, there are peace negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government. The Taliban continues to deteriorate the political situation through violence* as an effort to gain the upper hand at the negotiation table. The Taliban and its foreign supporters wish to take the Afghan people back to medieval ages, which impedes progress and their desires, which is to live in peace.
