Nina, a 19-year-old student from Bangladesh, is clutching her boxing gloves to her face while staring into the mirror at her university dorm room.
She is learning how to defend herself. She says there is no other choice. Nina is one of hundreds of Afghan women who, despite the possibility that they will never be able to return home, have embraced the offer of a Western education.
She says she felt significantly weaker when navigating the Kabul airport a little over a year ago. She recalled that her hands were shaking. She decided against leaving Afghanistan since she was aware of the danger.
She lied when asked by airport officials: “The Taliban don’t allow women to travel alone so I said my mother was sick in Pakistan.”
When they were persuaded, she was relieved, but a more difficult challenge lay ahead.
Nina left her house and her family as she boarded the aircraft. It was so difficult for her that “the day I left, I was crying that I might never see my mother’s face again.”
My younger sister’s heart was broken by it. It hurts to think of them.
“We want to extricate 1,000 women,”
Life has significantly changed for Afghan women since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, two years ago.
They lost the ability to continue their education above the age of 12, dress whichever they like, and travel by themselves for longer than 72 kilometres.
Nina is one of many who was given a chance to escape through educational opportunities provided by the Asian University for Women (AUW) initiatives.
The AUW started getting calls from their female students requesting assistance as soon as the Taliban took power. Kamal Ahmad, the organization’s founder, claims he knew he had to free them.
With the help of AUW students, who spread the word, they were able to rescue 148 women from Kabul as western forces left the nation. Three times in all, seven coaches made the perilous trip to the airport in the city.
On August 26, a suicide bomber whooshed through the crowd outside one of the airport’s gates when the women were in the departures area killed more than 150 people.
“They boarded a flight with the US military and successfully landed in Saudi Arabia after an extremely traumatic journey to the airport,” Mr. Ahmad said. “All 148 ladies are currently enrolled at universities across the country. I’m just happy that the conclusion wasn’t horrible.
Since then, AUW has provided scholarships and coordinated the evacuation of 450 women from Afghanistan, in addition to hundreds more. These students have been transferred to AUW’s own university in Bangladesh or to affiliated institutions in the US and the UK, including Brown University and Oxford and Manchester.
By providing scholarships and a safe escape from Afghanistan, AUW intends to assist more women — the target is 1,000 — in continuing their study.
“I abandoned my husband in Iran.”
Safia, a 20-year-old journalist, is another one of the program’s beneficiaries. The night the Taliban took control, she was on her way to work. Her career and the television studio where she worked were soon closed down.
Due to the increased restrictions put on women, she claims it was challenging for several weeks just to leave her house.
The Taliban tried to kidnap me one day and put me in a box because I wasn’t wearing all black, so I chose to wear red instead. It was frightening.
Safia was told by her captors to enter the post office and turn in her identification, passport and mobile but instead she escaped.
She recalled having a fervent belief that she would be shot from behind. She continued, “Even though I knew that in our society, death is preferable to a Taliban capture, I screamed that I wouldn’t go into the post office and raced with all of my strength.
She claims that while rushing passed moving cars and almost colliding with a number of them, she kept going until she arrived at a store. She claims that she was mute until her spouse discovered her.
She claims that the Taliban never came looking for her, but it was a brief reprieve because she no longer had a job and spent most of her time at home because she was frightened to leave.
She received a scholarship offer at AUW a few months later. She has no clue when she will be reunited with any of her family members, including her husband, but she hopes that by continuing her education, she will be able to support them.
She claims that he assisted her in leaving Afghanistan by misrepresenting their destination to airport security. She claims that in order to even reach the airport, they had to undergo lengthy questioning and provide a marriage licence.
They kept looking for documentation showing that we were a married couple. It was difficult, but eventually they allowed us through. I had to then go through Iran and Dubai before arriving in Chittagong. It was really difficult for me to leave my husband in Iran.
Safia claims she never intended to leave her pre-undergraduate programme, where she is now enrolled. She thinks that journalists must stand up for common people in Afghanistan.
“My family wanted me to leave for my own safety, but I personally wanted to be a voice for the women whose rights had been taken away.”
“The Day I Forever Left My Family,”
Her parents also pushed Nina to visit Bangladesh. She claims, however, that she was concerned about abandoning them and the danger to them. She also had a hard time adjusting to a completely different culture and language.
However, she had founded a boxing club by her second semester. 50 female students currently attend her lesson.
She thinks it’s crucial for women to be strong and capable of self-defense because “I’ve always wanted to be able to protect myself and I want to teach others to do the same.”
She claims that she put in a lot of effort in school for seven years and often boxed at the gym.
But starting in August 2021, I was unable to go to the gym, carry on with my study, or even walk outside.
In Afghanistan, girls beyond the age of 12 are no longer permitted to attend school.
According to her, the Taliban transported Afghanistan 20 years in the past: “I sobbed. The circumstance is terrible.
She now wants to encourage other female students to develop their strength and confidence. All of them, like Nina and Safia, have left their pasts behind and are attempting to forge ahead into their futures, but for the time being, they have had to let go of those they hold dear.
“I want the Afghan women to be free because I know how hard they work to get it. They should all be able to pursue their goals, Nina argues, one day.
These women all claim to have something in common. The woman they left behind will always be on their minds.