Aqeela Asifi

Aqeela Asifi is an Afghan woman teacher who has educated thousands of refugee children in Mianwali, Pakistan.[1]

Aqeela Asifi
Born	1966 Afghanistan
Citizenship	Afghan
Occupation	Teacher
Known for	educating thousands of refugee children in Pakistan
Notable work	Starting the Community Girls Model School No 2 in Kot Chandna
Awards	Nansen Refugee Award

Asifi trained in Afghanistan as a teacher of history and geography.[2]

She had to leave her country when the Taliban took over in 1992. When she arrived as a refugee at the Kot Chandna camp in Mianwali, there were no schools for refugee children. Aqeela set up a school in a borrowed tent. In 2017 there are nine schools in the camp with over 1,500 students.[3] Several of these schools are also attended by Afghan refugee girls.[4]

In 2015 Asifi was honoured with the Nansen Refugee Award for her untiring efforts in providing Afghan refugee children with an education. She has used most of her US $100,000[5] Nansen prize money to building a new school.[6] The Award honours extraordinary service to refugees.[7]

In 2017, the Community Girls Model School No 2 in Kot Chandna, started by Asifi, was recognised by the Department of Education as a higher-secondary school. It is now the first refugee school in the Punjab to be affiliated with a Board of Education.[8]

Over a period of 23 years, she has taught more than 1,000 girls. In 2020 another 1,500 refugee boys and girls were enrolled in six schools.[9]