Guy mansplaining 'education' to woman whose family escaped Taliban gets a reality check online

For women in deeply misogynistic societies, pursuing an education is far from easy. Societal norms often deny girls even basic schooling, and those who try to break through face enormous challenges. But some, like Afghan woman Sara Wahedi, refuse to be held back. Known as @SaraWahedi on X, she defied the Taliban’s restrictions on education and pursued her studies at the University of Oxford in the UK, showing incredible resilience and determination.

In an X post, Wahedi proudly announced, "Entering Oxford. Feeling a rush of emotions." It was a huge deal for her, especially because of how the older women in her family were denied education. Her aunt, who lived in Amsterdam, shared a powerful message saying that for Afghan women like Wahedi, "education was their revenge." Wahedi pointed out, "Vengeance against her father, who banned women of our family from school, vengeance against the Taliban, and those who fear an educated woman." The post went viral with over 882,000 views in just a couple of days. The Oxford student also took a dig at how women's education was a lost cause in her homeland.

"All of my aunts and my mother have been checking in constantly today - all of them cried," she mentioned in the thread. It was an emotional moment for the women in her family as many of them couldn't achieve their dreams. "I feel the weight of their pain. Misogyny is a cancer. Afghan women and girls must have their fundamental rights protected. This must end here," added Wahedi. Inevitably, a determined woman like her intimidated quite a few commentators. Apart from the misogynic remarks over Wahedi's ambition, there was one interesting individual who decided to mansplain to her what "education" truly is. 

An X user who goes by @SteveLawrence_ responded to Wahedi's post saying, "Education does not necessarily need schools, books and teachers in a conventional sense, Sara. It's possible to adopt a strategy where the education of girls takes place in plain sight but doesn't look like it. A quiet, respectful, powerful, informed matriarchy can do this." This controversial comment, which has since been deleted, didn't miss the eyes of @twlldun, who shared the snapshot of it and said, "Did Steve just mansplain female education to a woman who escaped the Taliban?" It took barely a day for this to viral and people rushed to put Lawrence in his place for his comment that defines not only "education" but also how "matriarchy" is supposed to function.

"I suppose it's an unthinkingly silly post from Steve, but it does come across basically as, 'I'd urge you to tell your aunts, amid their weeping, that they could have had a world-leading education if only they'd organized themselves into a more powerful matriarchy,'" pointed out @danbarker. "Crowdfunder to send Steve to Kabul to do some of that surreptitious educating that he's an expert on," quipped @alanbenzie. "I would like to know how Steve knows that women aren't already secretly educating each other in whatever ways they can. Since Steve isn't a woman, he wouldn't know. Also, having to educate in secret is still misogyny, Steve," added @ATeacherMN.