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Editor's note: Shabana Basij-Rasikh is one of National Geographic's 2014 emerging explorers, a designation that honors tomorrow's visionariesthose making discoveries, making a difference, and inspiring people to care about the planet.

Shabana Basij-Rasikh thinks she knows the secret to healing ethnic tensions that arose from more than 30 years of war in Afghanistan, improving the struggling economy, and fixing the devastated infrastructure: girls.

Having co-founded her home country's first boarding school for girls in 2008, Basij-Rasikh believes that women are the nation's most valuable untapped natural resource. Her nonprofit School of Leadership, Afghanistan in Kabul offers college prep courses and helps graduates get into universities around the world.

The hope is that they come back to pursue careers in Afghanistan.

"These young women are the generation that can bring peace and prosperity back to our country," says Basij-Rasikh, 24, who was educated in secret during the repressive Taliban regime. (Read a Q&A with Basij-Rasikh.)

From 1996 until 2001, when the Taliban was toppled by U.S.-led forces, Afghanistan's women were barred from participating in politics and business. The fundamentalist Islamic regime also made it illegal for girls to go to school.

By 2007, only 6 percent of Afghan women 25 years or older had received any formal education. Even today, the illiteracy rate for rural women hovers around 90 percent. (Related: "New Afghan Law Disastrous for Women, Says National Geographic Photographer.")

To chip away at that number, the School of Leadership has helped students from across Afghanistan access more than ten million dollars in scholarships. The school has 35 students, ages 12 to 18, and is working to boost enrollment to 340 in the next five years.

"The most effective antidote to the Taliban is to create the best educated leadership generation in Afghanistan's history," says Basij-Rasikh. "Our girls todaythe women of tomorrowwill make it happen."

Key to meeting that goal, she says, is involving women from around the world. Each student at School of Leadership, Afghanistanor SOLA, which means "peace" in the Pashtun languageis matched with a volunteer mentor from abroad to Skype with twice a week. Mentors and students discuss current events and books and talk through communications challenges, college applications, and personal problems.

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A Native Daughter Returns to Afghanistan on Daring Mission: Educating Girls

Washington The United States military and NATO officially shuttered their combat command in Afghanistan in a little-noticed ceremony Monday, more than 13 years after the start of the longest war America has ever fought.

But what had long promised to be a major milestone in the war has been overshadowed by recent strategic changes on the ground. Even as troops lowered the flag of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) joint command which was in charge of combat operations Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made it clear that the US will be jettisoning its original plan to cut forces to 9,800 by years end.

The Pentagon has announced that up to 1,000 more US troops than initially planned will stay in Afghanistan into 2015. In addition, recent reports have suggested that US forces will conduct counterterrorism operations rather than combat operations.

The moves will not change our troops missions or the long-term timeline for our drawdown, Secretary Hagel said in a news conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Afghanistan Saturday.

But they make the mission of US troops murky, many analysts say.

Originally, December was meant to mark the end of US combat operations in Afghanistan. After 2014, US forces had been slated to become trainers of Afghan troops, rather than fighters. Then came President Obamas decision, reported last month, to allow US troops to continue to target Taliban fighters.

US officials insist that this is different from "combat" operations, and bristle at the notion that this is an expansion of the troops original post-2014 mission. US forces will now simply have a so-called counterterrorism mission alongside their training mission, they said.

This comes on the heels of a spate of recent Taliban attacks, though US officials insist that logistics, rather than an uptick in Taliban activity, is the reason for the extension of US troop deployments.

Still, US military officials have struggled to clarify what the "counterterrorism" mission will entail.

While we wont target Taliban for the sake just merely for the sake of the fact that theyre Taliban and quote unquote belligerents, should members of the Taliban decide to threaten American troops or specifically target and threaten our Afghan partners in a tactical situation, were going to reserve the right to take action as needed, said Rear Adm. John Kirby, Pentagon press secretary, in a briefing with reporters late last month.

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Symbolic 'end' to Afghanistan war overshadowed by new Obama plans (+video)

Kabul, Afghanistan The US and NATO closed their combat command in Afghanistan on Monday, more than 13 years after invading the country in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks to target Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

Though quickly routing the Taliban-led government that sheltered the militants, the US-led coalition soon found itself spending billions of dollars rebuilding a country devastated by almost 30 years of war while an insurgency grew as the invasion and occupation of Iraq quickly took America's attention.

As NATO's International Security Assistance Force's Joint Command, which was in charge of combat operations, lowered its flag Monday and formally ended its deployment, resurgent Taliban militants launched yet another bloody attack in the country. And with US President Barack Obama allowing American troops to go after both Al Qaeda and Taliban militants in the country into next year, the fighting likely won't be over anytime soon.

"I don't think the war will slow or stop during the winter, as attacks on cities are not contingent on the weather," Afghan political analyst Wahid Muzhdah said. "I believe attacks in the cities will increase they attract media attention."

Monday's ceremony saw the NATO flag of the command folded and put away amid the foreign troop withdrawal. From Jan. 1, the coalition will maintain a force of 13,000 troops in Afghanistan, down from a peak around 140,000 in 2011. As of Dec. 1, there were some 13, 300 NATO troops in the country.

US Gen. John F. Campbell, commander of NATO and US forces, said foreign troops now will focus on training and supporting local Afghan forces, which have led the fight against the Taliban insurgents since mid-2013.

"The Afghan security forces are capable," Campbell told The Associated Press. "They have to make some changes in the leadership which they're doing, and they have to hold people accountable."

But as local troops stepped up, they now face record-high casualty figures that have risen 6.5 percent this year, to 4,634 killed in action, compared to 4,350 in 2013. By comparison, some 3,500 foreign forces, including at least 2,210 American soldiers, have been killed since the war began in 2001.

President Obama recently allowed American forces to launch operations against both Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, broadening the mission of the US forces that will remain in the country. They also will be permitted to provide combat and air support as necessary, while Afghan President Ashraf Ghani also considers resuming controversial night raids that could see Americans take part.

Up to 10,800 US troops will remain in Afghanistan for the first three months of next year, 1,000 more than previously planned, said a NATO official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss troop deployments. As a result, there will be little, if any, net drop in U.S. troop numbers between now and Dec. 31, when the international combat mission formally ends.

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US, NATO end combat command in Afghanistan (+video)

British Tornadoes Final Departure From Afghanistan
British Tornado GR4 pilots from RAF 31 Squadron takeoff from Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan for the last time on November 11, 2014. 31 Squadron did four tours during five years of operations...

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British Tornadoes Final Departure From Afghanistan - Video

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