Miller Hull

By Yasaman Esmaili, Solaiman Salahi

When it opened in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif (Mazar), in the northern part of Afghanistan, in June of 2015, the Gohar Khatoon school was the largest such institution for girls in the country. The 21,500-square-foot concrete-and-brick building complex has 27 classrooms, office space, and a tree-shaded courtyard, built to educate 3,000 students in kindergarten through the 12th grade. Commissioned by the Balkh Province Department of Education with a United States–based nonprofit, the Sahar organization, the project was designed by the late architect Robert Hull, cofounder of Miller Hull in Seattle, with an international team from the University of Washington School of Architecture, and built in collaboration with a local engineering and construction crew in Afghanistan. Architectural Record published a story about the school in January 2016.

After the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, the 20-year gains for women’s equality in public life and education were swiftly reversed. As U.S.-based members of the architecture and construction team of Gohar Khatoon, we were deeply concerned about the future of the school and its students. Earlier last year, before the U.S. military withdrawal, we had begun interviewing stakeholders in the project to better understand what aspects of the planning, design, and building process had contributed to its success and what might be done differently in the future. But our research has taken on profound urgency as we seek to assess the situation at the school from our locations abroad. Already, the Taliban has reneged on its promise to keep schools open, barring girls above sixth grade—nearly half of the Gohar Khatoon students—from returning to their places of study.

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