"My name is Gulnoor* and I'm fifteen years old.
It's illegal for girls to go to school here. My freedom, my hopes, and my dreams were taken from me the day schools closed.
But I won't let that stop me -- I want to be a doctor one day.
So now, I go to an underground school for girls. We learn English, maths, computers -- but biology is my favourite.
I'm scared the Taliban will find us. But life without learning is a dead end."
Like Gulnoor, thousands of girls are refusing to give up hope. In the face of terrifying violence and restrictions, they are bravely defying the Taliban, slipping through the streets to attend secret, underground schools.
Taught by women forced out of employment, these classrooms are the seeds of resistance -- but the number is severely limited, and as poverty soars, many could close. We have to help!
Avaaz has contacted the teachers, and we've developed a plan to rapidly expand the network of underground schools. Now our movement could get hundreds more girls in school, funding teachers' salaries, books, and computers, in a defiant stand against oppression.
Being a girl in Afghanistan is terrifying -- but they are finding the cracks. Let's throw open the doors of learning, give girls the best chance we can, and accelerate our urgent campaigns for women's rights. Donate what you can now.