07/08/2026
Each morning, Mia Khan sets off on a journey of roughly 12 kilometers with his three daughters, determined to get them to school. Because their village has no school for girls, he travels to the closest one available. After dropping them off, he doesn’t head back home. Instead, he remains outside the school for the next four hours, waiting until classes finish so he can es**rt them safely home.
For seven consecutive years, Khan followed this routine every school day. Some days he made the trip on foot, while on others he rode his motorcycle. Although he is a small-scale farmer from Afghanistan’s Paktika province with limited financial means, he refused to let poverty or distance stand in the way of his daughters’ education.
To Khan, schooling is an investment in their future. As he once explained, “I hope that one day my daughters will be able to support me the way that I have supported them. I am a very poor man. I hope in the future they become well-educated, that they become doctors.”
His wife, Khorma, has shared that commitment from the beginning. Neither of them had the opportunity to receive an education themselves, but both were determined that their daughters would have the chance they never did. Their daughter, Rozai, reflected on that reality by saying, “My mother and father did not go to school so there is no one to help us with our homework.”
After Khan’s story spread online, people across the world were inspired by his dedication. Afghanistan’s Ministry of Education invited him to Kabul, presented him with a medal in recognition of his efforts, and announced plans to build a girls’ school in his village. The school would bear Mia Khan’s name, honoring a father whose perseverance and belief in education created hope for future generations.