Goal of the Month: November 2021

An academic who lost her career and became a refugee when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan has been conferred as a Visiting Professor at De Montfort University (DMU), which serves as the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) SDG 11 Hub Chair.

Atefa Waseq was stripped of her teaching role and her right to pursue a doctorate when the Taliban seized power. After Taliban fighters retook Kabul on 15 August 2021, edicts restricting women’s movement and banning women and girls from secondary and higher education left over 78 per cent of Afghan women out of education, a situation UN Women has warned is increasingly untenable.

The Regional Institute of Gender, Diversity, Peace, and Rights (RIGDPR) at Ahfad University for Women (AUW) in Sudan—UNAI SDG Hub 1 Vice-Chair for Outreach and Partnership—leads student-centered internships with partners across sectors. Despite ongoing conflict in the country, students have contributed to gender assessments, empowerment workshops, and psychosocial support for displaced women—bridging academic training with real-world action and driving meaningful social change.