Afghan girls describe how they escaped the Taliban

This week on 60 Minutes, correspondent Lesley Stahl reported on an all-girls Afghan boarding school named SOLA, short for School of Leadership Afghanistan. 

SOLA was forced to flee Kabul when the Taliban assumed control of Afghanistan in August 2021, following the withdrawal of the United States military. The school relocated to Rwanda, where it educates girls in sixth through twelfth grades. Many of its high school students are now attending boarding schools aboard.

The Taliban has since banned girls from receiving anything beyond a sixth-grade education.

Last summer, as SOLA’s high school students practiced public speaking, 60 Minutes listened to the first-hand accounts of the final moments they spent in their homeland and how much they value their education. Hear these students in their own words in the video above. 

You can watch Lesley Stahl’s full report on SOLA below. 

The video at the top of the page was produced by Keith Zubrow and edited by Sarah Shafer Prediger.