From young Afghani activist and Amnesty International Global Youth Ambassador Pashtana Durrani, a deeply inspiring memoir about the power of learning and the value of educators in their many forms – from teachers, mentors, and role models, to fathers, mothers, and any one of us with the drive to stand against ignorance…
A Ms. Magazine Pick for Most Anticipated Feminist Books
"Pashtana's story highlights the resourcefulness and bravery of young women in Afghanistan. I hope readers will be inspired by her mission to give every girl the education she deserves and the opportunity to pursue her dreams."—Malala Yousafzai
Inspired by generations of her family's unwavering belief in the power of education, Pashtana Durrani recognized her calling early in life: to educate Afghanistan's girls and young women, raised in a society where learning is forbidden. In a country devastated by war and violence, where girls are often married off before reaching their teenage years and prohibited from leaving their homes, heeding that call seemed both impossible and dangerous.
Pashtana was raised in an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan where her father, a tribal leader, founded a community school for girls within their home. Fueled by his insistence that despite being a girl, she mattered and deserved an education, Pashtana was sixteen when, against impossible odds, she was granted a path out of the refugee camp: admittance to a preparatory program at Oxford. Unthinkably and to her parents' horror, she chose a different path. She chose Afghanistan.
Pashtana founded the nonprofit LEARN and developed a program for getting educational materials directly into the hands of girls in remote areas of the country, training teachers in digital literacy. Her commitment to education has made her a target of the Taliban. Still, she continues to fight for women's education and autonomy in Afghanistan and beyond.
Courageous and inspiring, Last to Eat, Last to Learn is the story of how just one person can transform a family, a tribe, a country. It reminds us of the emancipatory power of learning and the transformational potential that lies within each of us.
A portion of proceeds from Last to Eat, Last to Learn will be donated to LEARN (LearnAfghan.org), the NGO dedicated to providing quality education and healthcare to communities in conflict zones.
ARC Book review
As Miss Durrani leads us through her life, I find a heartwarming family that embrace love and education for everyone and that kindness and helping others was their goal. After Pashtana Durrani described the risk and strength her father had not only in his own life but in helping others, it made me wish that he would have lived long enough to watch his daughter succeed, but I think he still did. I also think that what she learn from her family was perseverance and doing whatever it takes to succeed, good for her. However, I was a little on her mother side when she didn't go to Oxford for an education, thinking that staying in Afghanistan would help her be closer to the women she wanted to help. I wondered the how many connections she would have made if she went to Oxford and if it would have made her mission more successful and not so hard.
I liked how she took us on her journey from the refugee camps to parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan and what she had to do to complete her education and find a way to start her mission in life., it is very colorful and descriptive. I was very impressed when the elders of her tribe chose her to succeed her father as elder until her brother came of age, and it must have given her a wonderful feeling. Its a wonderful moving read and so in spring .
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