$25 Million Cut Ends US Funding for Afghan University Serving 1,000 Students

The United States has declined to release a $25 million grant to the American University of Afghanistan, cutting off the main source of money for an online program serving about 1,000 students, roughly three-quarters of them women. The State Department told Deutsche Welle the decision reflected the university's "history of repeated lack of accountability for millions of American taxpayer dollars." The university's former USAID mission director, Patrick Fine, rejected that explanation as "smear tactics."

Students learned of the decision by email. One student, a political science major in her mid-twenties who asked to be called Laila for safety reasons, said she read the message after waking at night. She attends lectures from home through the university's online program, along with classmates who use aliases and keep cameras off. "I just know their voices," she said. Taliban authorities have taken over the campus in Kabul.

Women have been barred from university study in Afghanistan since the Taliban announced the restriction in December 2022. Laila was two exams from finishing a degree at a Kabul university when the Taliban returned to power in August 2021; that degree went unfinished. A scholarship to the American University of Afghanistan let her start over. "Not every girl got that opportunity," she said. Threatening calls to peers and searches of her family's home by officials weigh on her studies. "It's always in the back of my head that maybe tomorrow it's my turn," she said.

The university opened in 2006 with US backing. Former first lady Laura Bush announced that the United States had committed millions of dollars to it and said it would train "future leaders," particularly women. Fine said many at USAID viewed the project as risky and some critics called it a waste of money, but the Bush administration saw a way to stabilize a young democracy and build goodwill for the interim government that replaced the Taliban.

US inspectors examined the university's finances beginning in 2016. By 2018 they reported that poor accounting made it impossible to trace how aid money was spent. John Sopko, the former federal inspector who oversaw that work, said: "I was surprised they were still funding AUAF." Fine acknowledged earlier audits found the university struggling with USAID's rules but said they "didn't find major fraud." He called the university "a worthy investment" because it is one of the few organizations still reaching Afghan women.

The United States has long been the largest donor. A US report put its share at nearly 90% as of 2018. The State Department said the university is "free to identify other funders and partners," so ending American taxpayer money does not by itself require the university to close. The refused $25 million grant leaves its operations in question.

Laila said the cut removed her motivation and hope. She has barely left her room since reading the email and said that as she prepares for each lecture she wonders whether another will follow. She had expected to graduate years ago and study for a master's degree abroad. She now thinks she may find a way in five or ten years.