Afghan women escape for a chance at education

In her university room in Bangladesh, Nina, 19, holds her boxing gloves up to her face, staring into the mirror.

She is learning to protect herself. She says there is no other way. Nina is one of hundreds of Afghan women who have taken up the offer of an education abroad, despite knowing they may never be able to return home.

Nearly 12 months ago, walking through Kabul airport, she says she felt far less strong. She remembers her hands shaking. She knew it was dangerous to flee Afghanistan.

When airport officials questioned her, she lied: “The Taliban don’t allow women to travel alone so I said my mother was sick in Pakistan.”

She was relieved when they were convinced, but a harder challenge was yet to come.

As Nina stepped onto the plane she stepped away from her home and family. “On the day when I left I was crying that I might never see my mother’s face again, it was so hard for me,” she says.

“It broke my younger sister’s heart. When I think about them, it hurts.”

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan two years ago – in August 2021 – life has drastically changed for women in the country.

They lost their right to be educated past the age of 12, their right to wear what they want or travel alone for more than 72km.

Nina is among those who was offered a way out – an education through programmes organised by the Asian University for Women (AUW).

As soon as the Taliban came to power, the AUW began receiving calls for help from their female students. Its founder, Kamal Ahmad, says he knew he had to get them out.

As western forces left the country they managed to evacuate a group of 148 women from Kabul as AUW students spread the word. Seven coaches made the dangerous journey to the city’s airport a total of three times.

The women were in the departures area when a suicide bomb ripped through the crowd outside one of the airport’s gates on 26 August, killing more than 150 people.

“After an extremely traumatic journey to the airport, they boarded a flight with the US military and successfully landed in Saudi Arabia,” Mr Ahmad said. “All 148 women are now in universities across the United States. I just feel relieved that it wasn’t a bad outcome.”

Since then AUW has offered scholarships and organised the evacuation of hundreds more women out of Afghanistan – 450 so far. These students have been sent to AUW’s own university in Bangladesh, or partner colleges such as Brown University in the US, and Oxford and Manchester in the UK.

AUW hopes to help more women – the goal is 1,000 – to continue their education by offering scholarships and a safe exit from Afghanistan.

Safia, a journalist in her 20s, is another beneficiary of the scheme. She was heading to work the night the Taliban…