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The women who escaped Afghanistan to get an education

“But at the same time, my friends in Afghanistan can’t do anything,” she adds.

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

Women and girls over 12 are banned from schools, and prevented from sitting most university entrance exams. There are also restrictions in the work they can do, with beauty salons being closed, as well as being not being able to go to parks, gyms and sport clubs.

“I don’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 don’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 start to eventually becoming a midwife in Wales.

“It’s hard for me because I can go to college here and I can go to work.

“But at the same time, back home, my friends who are the same age, can’t leave the house.”

The Taliban has said its ban is down to religious issues.

They have repeatedly promised women would be readmitted once the issues were sorted – including making sure the curriculum was “Islamic”.

But, there has since been no movement on the ban, and Afghanistan is the only country with such restrictions.


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