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When I was 11,

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I remember waking up one morning to the sound of joy in my house.

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My father was listening to BBC News

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on his small, gray radio.

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There was a big smile on his face which was unusual then,

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because the news mostly depressed him.

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"The Taliban are gone!" my father shouted.

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I didn't know what it meant,

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but I could see that my father was very, very happy.

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"You can go to a real school now," he said.

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A morning that I will never forget.

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A real school.

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You see, I was six when the Taliban took over Afghanistan

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and made it illegal for girls to go to school.

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So for the next five years, I dressed as a boy

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to escort my older sister, who was no longer allowed

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to be outside alone, to a secret school.

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It was the only way we both could be educated.

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Each day, we took a different route

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so that no one would suspect where we were going.

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We would cover our books in grocery bags

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so it would seem we were just out shopping.

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The school was in a house,

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more than 100 of us packed in one small living room.

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It was cozy in winter but extremely hot in summer.

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We all knew we were risking our lives --

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the teacher, the students and our parents.

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From time to time, the school would suddenly be canceled

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for a week because Taliban were suspicious.

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We always wondered what they knew about us.

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Were we being followed?

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Do they know where we live?

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We were scared,

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but still, school was where we wanted to be.

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I was very lucky to grow up in a family

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where education was prized and daughters were treasured.

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My grandfather was an extraordinary man for his time.

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A total maverick from a remote province of Afghanistan,

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he insisted that his daughter, my mom,

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go to school, and for that he was disowned by his father.

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But my educated mother became a teacher.

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There she is.

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She retired two years ago, only to turn our house

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into a school for girls and women in our neighborhood.

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And my father -- that's him --

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he was the first ever in his family to receive an education.

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There was no question that his children

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would receive an education, including his daughters,

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despite the Taliban, despite the risks.

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To him, there was greater risk in not educating his children.

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During Taliban years, I remember

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there were times I would get so frustrated by our life

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and always being scared and not seeing a future.

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I would want to quit,

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but my father,

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he would say,

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"Listen, my daughter,

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you can lose everything you own in your life.

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Your money can be stolen. You can be forced to leave your home during a war.

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But the one thing that will always remain with you

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is what is here,

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and if we have to sell our blood to pay your school fees,

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we will.

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So do you still not want to continue?"

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Today I am 22.

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I was raised in a country that has been destroyed

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by decades of war.

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Fewer than six percent of women my age have made it beyond high school,

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and had my family not been so committed to my education,

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I would be one of them.

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Instead, I stand here a proud graduate of Middlebury College.

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(Applause)

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When I returned to Afghanistan, my grandfather,

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the one exiled from his home for daring to educate his daughters,

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was among the first to congratulate me.

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He not only brags about my college degree,

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but also that I was the first woman,

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and that I am the first woman

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to drive him through the streets of Kabul.

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(Applause)

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My family believes in me.

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I dream big, but my family dreams even bigger for me.

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That's why I am a global ambassador for 10x10,

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a global campaign to educate women.

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That's why I cofounded SOLA,

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the first and perhaps only boarding school

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for girls in Afghanistan,

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a country where it's still risky for girls to go to school.

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The exciting thing is that I see students at my school

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with ambition grabbing at opportunity.

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And I see their parents and their fathers

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who, like my own, advocate for them,

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despite and even in the face of daunting opposition.

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Like Ahmed. That's not his real name,

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and I cannot show you his face,

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but Ahmed is the father of one of my students.

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Less than a month ago, he and his daughter

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were on their way from SOLA to their village,

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and they literally missed being killed

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by a roadside bomb by minutes.

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As he arrived home, the phone rang,

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a voice warning him

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that if he sent his daughter back to school,

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they would try again.

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"Kill me now, if you wish," he said,

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"but I will not ruin my daughter's future

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because of your old and backward ideas."

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What I've come to realize about Afghanistan,

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and this is something that is often dismissed in the West,

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that behind most of us who succeed

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is a father who recognizes the value in his daughter

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and who sees that her success is his success.

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It's not to say that our mothers aren't key in our success.

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In fact, they're often the initial and convincing negotiators

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of a bright future for their daughters,

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but in the context of a society like in Afghanistan,

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we must have the support of men.

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Under the Taliban, girls who went to school

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numbered in the hundreds --

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remember, it was illegal.

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But today, more than three million girls are in school in Afghanistan.

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(Applause)

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Afghanistan looks so different from here in America.

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I find that Americans see the fragility in changes.

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I fear that these changes will not last

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much beyond the U.S. troops' withdrawal.

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But when I am back in Afghanistan,

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when I see the students in my school

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and their parents who advocate for them,

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who encourage them, I see a promising future

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and lasting change.

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To me, Afghanistan is a country of hope and boundless possibilities,

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and every single day

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the girls of SOLA remind me of that.

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Like me, they are dreaming big.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)