US State Department refuses $25 million for Afghan university
The cut threatens a route to higher education for Afghan women. Online classes continue, and the US says the university can seek other funders to keep operating.
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The cut threatens a route to higher education for Afghan women. Online classes continue, and the US says the university can seek other funders to keep operating.
The US State Department has withdrawn funding from the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF), refusing a $25 million grant and leaving one of the remaining higher-education routes for Afghan women with a financing gap. The university has roughly 1,000 students, three-quarters of them women, DW reported on October 23. The department confirmed the funding withdrawal to DW.
The Taliban returned to power in August 2021 and banned women from attending university in December 2022. With AUAF’s campus taken over by the Taliban, its online programme has allowed women to continue studying secretly. Remote lectures were continuing at the time of DW’s report, although students feared the loss of funding could force the university to close.
The US has long been AUAF’s main funder. It covered nearly 90% of the university’s costs in 2018, according to a US report cited by DW. That figure describes the historical funding arrangement, not the university’s current budget.
The State Department told DW it ended support because of what it described as the university’s repeated failure to account for millions of dollars in US taxpayer money. US inspectors opened a financial investigation in 2016. By 2018, investigators said poor accounting prevented them from determining exactly how the university was spending US aid.
Patrick Fine, a former Afghanistan mission director at USAID, the now-defunct US development agency, disputed the department’s explanation. He acknowledged that past audits found AUAF struggling to comply with USAID’s extensive rules, but said they had not found major fraud. Fine argued that supporting the university remained worthwhile because it was one of the few organizations still reaching Afghan women.
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A student whom DW calls Laila, a pseudonym used for her safety, said the university had given her another chance after the Taliban’s ban interrupted her earlier degree. She studies political science and international studies remotely. Her classmates use aliases and keep their cameras off for security, she said.
Laila said she and her classmates feared the university would shut down. Each time she prepares for a lecture, she wonders whether there will be another. Their concern is about the programme’s future: online teaching was still taking place.
Replacement funding remains a possible path to continued operations. The State Department told DW that AUAF was free to find other funders and partners, and that losing US taxpayer support did not necessarily mean the university would stop operating.
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