The women who escaped Afghanistan to get an education

Urdd A picture of 22-year-old Mah from Afghanistan who fled to Cardiff when the Taliban took over. She is wearing a pink blazer, standing in front of a glass window.Urdd

This month, class has resumed for many people in the UK.

But for women and girls in Afghanistan, there is still a restrictions from secondary school rooms, and much of common life, by the Taliban.

Mah, 22, fled from the state in August 2021 when the team swept into the investment Kabul.

She tells BBC Newsbeat,” I am glad for myself, and I’m starting a GCSE in English this week.” I am healthy. I have flexibility. I am free”.

” But at the same day, my companions in Afghanistan the n’t do anything”, she adds.

In the three years since the Taliban took control, restrictions on women’s lives have increased.

Women and women over the age of 12 are prohibited from attending most university entrance exams and are prohibited from taking classes. Additionally, there are limitations on the job they can do, with sealed beauty salons and restricted access to parks, facilities, and sports clubs.

” I do n’t put my picture on] Whatsapp or Instagram ] stories when I’m happy, when I go out with friends or when I’m in college”, Mah says.

” Because I do n’t want my friends]back home ] to feel like:’ Oh she’s in the UK now- she has freedom ‘”.

Mah, who is in Cardiff, hopes a GCSE in English is the begin to finally becoming a nurse in Wales.

” It’s difficult for me because I can attend college these and job.”

” But at the same time, again house, my friends who are the same time, the n’t leave the house.”

According to the Taliban, religious problems are the cause of the restrictions.

They have made promises to people that once the problems were resolved, including making sure the curriculum was” Islamic” in the past, they may be readmitted.

But, there has since been no action on the ban, and Afghanistan is the only state with such limits.

Urdd Mah in a large cream coloured coat and green & white beanie posing with the Urdd's Mascot - which is a triangle with red, white and green stripes and face on it in Cardiff Bay - outside the Senedd. Urdd

Mah’s path to getting into Cardiff’s knowledge was not always straightforward.

She claims she fled from Helmand Province to Kandahar and then to Kabul while the Taliban took control. Three weeks after arriving in the capital city, she woke up in the middle of the night to discover the Taliban on her road.

” If I stayed in Afghanistan, maybe they would shoot me, maybe they would marry me.

” I called my grandmother and said’ Mum, I’m going.’ She said,’ where are you going?’

” I said,’ I do n’t know’.”

Mah and other immigrants who were being welcomed into the region finally arrived in the UK.

” We came without everything. I did n’t say]a proper ] goodbye to my mum. I did n’t even hug her. This is something I will not miss.

” It’s not healthy now, but Afghanistan is the area I grew up and, went to school. I ca n’t forget the country, and I miss everything about it”.

Getty Images A group of Afghan women in holding up banners in protest.Getty Images

Mah received help from one of the largest youngsters companies, the Urdd, who were providing assist in the British capital.

Sian Lewis, the company’s CEO, claims that some people who fled to Wales and received training are now fluent in Welsh.

” A number of them moved to different sections of Wales and were educated here in the Urdd from the beginning.

” It’s opened but some doors for them,” she says.

When Mah came to the UK, she was n’t able to speak English.

” It was so difficult. I did n’t know anybody. Everything was novel.”

But now, three years later, Mah has spoken to BBC Newsbeat in an American interview lasting more than 20 days and is learning Welsh.

” People below should state’ thank God ‘ everyday.

” Girls have right. People here are healthy and have everything they want receptive to them. They should be glad. They are thus lucky”.

Aqdas 17-year-old Aqdas in traditional Afghanistan outfit, coluored purple, with a world map behind her. Sitting on a brown wooden spiral staircase.Aqdas

Another man who has left Afghanistan is 17-year-old Aqdas.

She’s then in the US with a fully supported scholarship to a college in New Mexico, more than 12, 000 km away from her home.

She recalls the day the Taliban attacked Kabul.

” I remember not knowing what to do anymore.

” Did they get my right away? May I go through the same kind of crime as my mother did 20 years ago?

” I noticed that my mum was crying and she placed her hand on my shoulder, telling me that, she could n’t continue her education because of the Taliban”.

However, she cautioned Aqdas against letting” the Taliban or your limitations create the codes for your living.”

After that, Aqdas continued education online, in secret, with the help of the Herat online school.

” I never gave up on my studying. whether it was going to find another way to go or going online.

Aqdas Aqdas, a woman wearing a green jacket and blue jeans, posing in front of a United World College USA sign with the slogan "Armand Hammer United World College of the American West"Aqdas

It was a long, and generally chaotic, voyage for her as well. She needed a visa to enter the United States when she received her fellowship, but the Afghan ambassador was closed.

She claims that because she was a woman and did not have permission to leave the country, she later traveled to Pakistan with her parents on a health card.

Aqdas has begun lessons, but he claims there are other things that are frequently overlooked in Afghanistan.

” Many individuals believe that the education of girls is the only issue in Afghanistan.” There are other problems, such as emotional wellbeing.

Ladies in Afghanistan experience depression and anxiety time in day, and there is no treatment.

The UK government has informed BBC Newsbeat that it vehemently opposes the ban on people entering classrooms and universities, and that it immediately urges the Taliban to “reverse these choices and to defend Afghan women ‘ right.”

The Taliban has been inundated with newsbeat articles about their worries about women and girls being denied access to education, but they have not received any responses.

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