Shabana Basij-Rasikh is the co-founder and president of the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA). SOLA is the first and only boarding school for Afghan girls, operating in Kabul from 2016 through 2021 and the Taliban’s return to power. In August 2021, Shabana led the evacuation of her entire school community from Afghanistan to Rwanda, where SOLA reestablished its operations and its students resumed their studies.

Shabana has overseen SOLA’s successful growth in Rwanda; in 2025, the school received 5,416 applications from Afghan girls worldwide for approximately 30 spots on campus. Shabana also oversaw SOLA’s expansion into the digital realm with 2024’s launch of SOLAx, a WhatsApp-based online academy with more than 20,000 learners.

Shabana is a 2011 magna cum laude graduate of Middlebury College and holds a Master in Public Policy from Oxford University. In 2018, she was awarded the Malalai Medal, one of Afghanistan’s highest national honors, for her work in promoting girls’ access to education. In 2023, she received the Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year award from the National Geographic Society.