The Story of an Inspiring Young Afghan Woman, now in Canada

Neill Mckee

Dec 2, 2024

4 min read

Updated: Sep 20

Hasina on the shore of Lake Ontario, Toronto, November 2025

Hasina Akbari is a young Afghan woman, mentioned in the final pages of my memoir, My University of the World: Adventures of an International Film and Media Maker. She contacted me in November 2021, after the Taliban had taken control again in her country. She’s an example of resilience in the face of difficult circumstances—something needed by all of us who cherish human rights and freedom today, given the political changes in the U.S. and trends in other countries. She arrived in Toronto, Canada, in late October 2025 with her mother and two siblings and is already a Canadian permanent resident as stipulated in the "group of five" citizens' sponsorship program. After a few months of adjustment, she made connections with local immigrant support and educational groups to make volunteer contributions to their causes. She also won three Canadian fellowships on gender equality, community work, and nonprofit governance, as well as, a United Nations' Millennium Fellowship for undergraduate students. She did all this while continuing her BSc studies in Health Sciences in the online University of the People, in California, which is accredited by the U.S.'s Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC). (Note: The Public Broadcasting Service {PBS} endorsed this institution in a May 2025 TV program). Hasina will complete her undergraduate studies in December 2026, and hopes to find a scholarship to complete a Masters program in Canada. Meanwhile, she has continued to improve her writing skills on a Substack account (see below).

As a child, Hasina was influenced by the most successful and long-lasting media program I started, UNICEF’s Meena Communication Initiative. Today, I continue to receive frequent feedback from young South Asian adults who were influenced by Meena stories as children, but Hasina is special, due to her many talents, including artwork creations under the name "Darya." She was born and grew up as a refugee in Peshawar, Pakistan, after the Taliban first took over Afghanistan in 1996. Her mother, a teacher, brought her Meena comic books to read and she saw Meena cartoons on television. The Meena stories challenge traditional South Asian gender norms, and from an early age she understood that girls in her family and society do not have the same rights as boys, and that this is not as it should be.

About a decade after the first Taliban government was overthrown, the family returned to Afghanistan, where Hasina completed secondary school. In 2019, she entered university in Kabul, but had to quit when the Taliban returned to power again in August 2021, because women were forbidden to attend universities. There were also bomb threats aimed at women appearing in public. By then her father had died, but in January 2022 she managed to escape to Pakistan with her mother and two siblings.

When they reached the capital, Islamabad, I contacted former UNICEF colleagues and we supplied funds for a new laptop computer and cellphone, to help her connect, communicate, and continue her education and artwork. She took off from there! The painting below won a competition organized by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Pakistan, and also won the UN Women: Asia and Pacific "Art for Impact Beijing +30 Digital Art Competition" in the category of women's education and training, protection in armed conflict, and human rights.

UNFPA invited her with others to meet their Regional Director, and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) contracted her to complete six cartoon-style illustrations (below) on preventing gender violence and girls' and women's empowerment, non-discrimination, protection and solidarity, support mechanisms, and transformative change---all for their “16 Days of Activism,” Nov. 25 - Dec. 10, 2024, when Hasina also participated in a panel.

Not only that, after arriving in Pakistan, Hasina reached out widely and her artwork was displayed and sold by women’s groups in the U.S., U.K., and Italy, where one piece was published by Avvenire (future) newspaper and also presented to the late Pope Francis in May 2024, and another was added to Monastery di Marango’s calendar for 2025.

In addition, in February 2023, another painting she completed was published in an article in Seattle Opera magazine:

Hasina used the sale of her artwork to run five distant courses in art therapy /psychosocial support for disadvantaged girls in Afghanistan, and applied for and received an Afghan Bridge Fellowship from the U.S. to fund an additional course, reaching over 200 children in all. She started SOUL Women, to continue such work with a network of volunteers she set up. She also completed many online certificate courses in diverse subjects: psychology, art therapy, video design, online teaching, self-empowerment, international leadership and organizational behavior, social management, and managing project risks and changes.

In Pakistan, Hasina was also hired by the American NGO, Team Themis, to develop new initiatives and manage social media for world-wide audiences on Afghan refugee women. In addition, she worked as a freelance translator and interview coordinator for various international news agencies, using her native language, Dari, and her proficiency in English, Pashto, and Urdu (note: she also speaks Persian - the mother tongue of Dari). She also did voluntary work for UNHCR Pakistan, and ran art workshops for various women's groups in Islamabad.

Hasina was a refugee for many years, but never saw herself as a victim. By her winning personality, talents, and ability in languages, she continues to succeed. She came from humble beginnings in difficult circumstances and is now forging a creative future in Canada, where she is sure to make a meaningful contribution.

See other examples of her artwork and writing and on her other social media sites below: