Studying Is an Act of Resistance. And We Are Here.

There is a girl we cannot name. She lives in Afghanistan, she is over twelve years old, and since she turned twelve she can no longer go to school. This is not a story from the past. It is today. It is now, as we write these lines.

On 8 March, at Museion in Bolzano, Casa Costa Foundation took part — alongside the anti-violence centre GEA and the NGO "Insieme si può…" from Belluno — in a public event held on the occasion of International Women's Day. It was not a commemoration. It was a live, concrete, at times uncomfortable exchange between people working — in geographically distant contexts — on the same thing: the right to exist fully.

What emerged that afternoon stayed with us in the days that followed. We couldn't let it go. And we decided we wanted to write about it.

She spoke without showing her face

At the heart of the afternoon was the testimony of an Afghan activist who, for security reasons, chose to remain anonymous. That detail alone says everything.

Her account had no rhetoric. She described a systematic regression, built piece by piece by the Taliban regime from 2021 onwards: schools closed to girls beyond primary level, work banned across entire sectors, freedom of movement denied, universities barred from 2022. Not isolated episodes — a system. A system that works best when the rest of the world stops watching.

She also spoke about what doesn't make the news — the silent war of hunger, poverty, families breaking apart under the weight of impossible choices. And alongside all of this, with the same composure, she spoke of hope: young Afghans who keep organising, who keep imagining a different future. Students under 25 who founded an organisation focused on the climate crisis. In a country devastated by war, caring about the environment is a political act. It is saying: we are still here.

Three organisations, one common thread

The event grew out of shared work between three organisations operating with different tools but the same direction: the dignity and autonomy of women. Casa Costa Foundation ETS, the anti-violence centre GEA, and the association "Insieme si può…" built together a space where distant stories recognised each other.

Christine Clignon, president of GEA, said something that has stayed with us: if each person, within their own area of expertise, takes a small step, then together we can bring wonderful things to life. This is not optimism. It is a precise description of how change works when people collaborate without seeking the spotlight.

The logic of control and humiliation does not change with latitude. The form changes. The substance is identical. And that is why those working against gender-based violence in South Tyrol and those supporting Afghan women thousands of kilometres away end up recognising the same mechanisms.

Our place in this story

Casa Costa Foundation was founded in 2007, from Michil Costa's encounter with Madame Jetsun Pema in India. Our support for RAWA — the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, active since 1977 for women's rights, peace and democracy — has been part of our work since 2014. A relationship built on real connections, with specific people, in places we cannot disclose. Among other things, RAWA today runs a network of secret schools where girls who would otherwise be forbidden to study continue to learn, risking everything.

These are not distant news stories. They are realities involving women we have worked with for over ten years.

We believe that truly regenerative hospitality does not end with the experience of those who travel. It is also measured by the capacity to keep one's eyes open to the world — and to act, when possible.

For us, 8 March is not an anniversary. It is a reminder: there are rights that exist only if we defend them together.

 

Note: this article is freely inspired by "Quando studiare è un atto di resistenza" ("When studying is an act of resistance") by Simonetta Nardin, published on Salto on 21 March 2026.