On the evening before the school opened in 2008, four men paid her a visit.

“They said, ‘This is your last chance … to change this school into a boys’ school, because the backbone of Afghanistan is our boys,’ ” Jan recalled. “I just turned around and I told them, ‘Excuse me. The women are the eyesight of Afghanistan, and unfortunately you all are blind. And I really want to give you some sight.’ ”

Jan has not seen the men since.

“You can’t be afraid of people,” she said. “You have to be able to say ‘no.’ Maybe because I’m old, the men are kind of scared of me, and they don’t argue with me.”

The Zabuli Education Center teaches kindergarten through eighth grade. Without her school, Jan says, many of the students would not be able to receive an education.

“When we opened the school in 2008 and I had these students coming to register, 90% of them could not write their name. And they were 12- and 14-year-old girls,” Jan said. “Now, they all can read and write.”