By: Elyas Ahmadi
For survivors of the suicide bombing at Kaaj education centre on September 30, the ban on women attending university is extra bitter.
After more than a year of self-directed study to sit the Kankor university entrance exam, then losing their friends in a massacre, several students told Rukhshana Media the sacrifices they made to get into university feel futile. While some are taking it in their stride.
After almost being killed in the Kaaj attack, Zohra Madadi, 19, went on to sit the university entrance exam. She scored the extremely high result of 338/360, and was accepted into medicine at Nangarhar University. But now, she remains at home, banned from attending any classes.
“The news banning girls from university was very disappointing, but it was not completely unexpected,” she says. Zohra had a feeling that with girls’ secondary schools closed, it was only a matter of time before universities would be affected.
But she remains undeterred and insists she will never give up pursuing her studies. These days, she is trying to get university approval to study in Germany.
The importance of women in healthcare was impressed upon her last week when she went for a blood test at Polyclinic Hospital in Kabul. The Taliban did not allow the male doctors there to take a sample from her.
“The Taliban that day were not allowing male doctors to treat or draw blood from women,” she says. “Don’t they realise that by closing schools and universities today, there is not going to be any female doctors tomorrow?”
‘My clothes were covered in blood’
Saeeda Husaini Sadaat was also at the Kaaj center during the attack. When she heard about the girls who had studied so hard on their own to get into university now being forced to stay at home, she could hardly believe it.
Her friends who died trying to prepare for the university exam immediately came to mind.
“It’s been very difficult for me,” she says. “I was completely devastated.”
Saeeda says she only survived because she decided to move rooms at the last minute.
“I was in the first row,” she says. “But I went to another room not to lose my concentration because I felt too rushed. A few moments later, the explosion happened and many of my friends lost their lives.”
“I carried the body of a friend of mine. My clothes from that day were covered in blood,” she says.
Despite her trauma, she pushed herself to sit the Kankor entrance exam. Some of her friends who were still bearing wounds from the bombing also did so.
“While I took the test, I was shedding so many tears,” she says.
Saeeda says the university ban has opened up a disappointment in her that even the bombing had not. Many of her friends who survived the explosion were all accepted into top university courses after the exam results were released.
According to the latest statistics, the Kaaj suicide attack killed 58 people and injured more than 120 others. The majority of the victims were female students.
Saeeda’s Kankor result was 283/360. She had wanted to study journalism but the Taliban had already banned girls from those courses. She instead was accepted into computer science at Kabul University.
Saeeda says her mother had spared no effort to support her daughter’s education over the years, encouraging her to work hard. When Saeeda cried upon hearing the news of the ban, her mother cried with her.
“Even now, my mother cries when the topic of the university ban is brought up,” Saeeda says. “Then she wipes her tears and comforts me.”
Mubareka Laali is one of Saeeda’s classmates who was also at the Kaaj centre during the attack. She too sat the Kanjor exam while still reeling from the incident. Her result of 258 got her accepted into the Dari literature department at Kabul University of Education. But the university ban has devastated her and her parents.
“When I heard the news, I remembered my classmates. I asked myself ‘Is that the payoff for all the troubles and sacrifices we made?’ My father was saying how hard people had worked to earn money and spend it on their children’s education. But, this government has turned all our efforts to dust.”
Mubareka says the heartbreaking scenes at Kaaj and witnessing the deaths of dozens around her has spurred her on to do more.
“I feel the burden of my dead classmates’ dreams and aspirations on my shoulders,” she says. “I have to try harder.”
‘The flowing water will find its way’
Afghan teenagers and women have been continuously protesting against the Taliban’s decrees, taking enormous risks to voice their disagreement in the streets. Dozens of countries and human rights organizations have also condemned the Taliban’s restrictions on women. And members of the Taliban themselves have begun to show signs of disagreeing with some of the decrees.
Meanwhile, the survivors of Kaaj say they will not give up. Although the days of staying at home are difficult for Mubareka, she says, “We cannot accept being kept in this prison under any circumstances.”
For Zohra, she says that the ban on women’s work and education has no foundation in Islam and is inhumane. “Think: Do you read Quran? Isn’t it obligatory for Muslim men and women to learn science?”
Saeeda says that she has no hope the Taliban will change, but she doesn’t want to give in to the darkness and encourages others to keep their heads up.
“Daughters of my land, do not lose hope. These days are passing. Continue your education in any possible way. Undoubtedly, the flowing water will eventually find its way,” she says.
