Rebecca Hersher. Hadia Durani is She says she wants to be president when she grows up. Hadia Durani is one of the cool girls at her school in Kabul. She's chatty and gets good grades, and when she grows up she wants to be president. In class, Hadia is outgoing, but once she leaves the schoolyard, things are different. She says men and boys yell at her when she's walking to and from school. They tell her she should stay at home, and call her mean names, and when that happens, she just keeps her head down and ignores them.
These girls are the lucky ones β they've been able to stay in school while many of their peers have dropped out. The heckling gets to her friend Layli. But she never has. This story is part of our 15Girls series , profiling teens around the world. These year-olds are both students at the Tanweer School in Kabul, Afghanistan. It's a private K school in a lower middle class neighborhood on the south side of the city. Their very presence in school is a sign of the progress girls are making in Afghanistan.
But teenage girls in Afghanistan are in a peculiar spot. They're better off than their mothers β for one thing, more and more young women can read β but their dreams for the future may not align with the opportunities available to them. At the same time, there are still not enough opportunities for young women to continue past high school and on to careers. Tanweer School is a private school in a lower middle class neighborhood on the south side of Kabul.
The students at the Tanweer School, whom I interviewed for our series on girls at 15, know they're especially lucky to be able to attend classes. A lot of girls their age have dropped out because there's too much social pressure from their families who want them to spend their time in the home after they reach puberty. We interviewed these girls β and some of the boys at their school as well β on video. You can see that and more photos from their school here.
Being a year-old girl can be tough no matter where you live. Tell us: What was the hardest thing about being 15? More details here. Somaya Rahmanzai is 15, geeky and crazy confident. Her career of choice: brain surgeon. At 15, they're full of dreams. Somaya Rahmanzai is a math and science nerd. In geometry class, she stands up confidently to volunteer the formula for the area of a circle.
