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The Afghan women who escaped to get an education abroad

Peter Gillibrand
BBC Newsbeat
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
Mah, 22, fled Afghanistan when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan

For many people in the UK this week, school has started again.

But for women and girls in Afghanistan, there is still a ban from secondary school classrooms, and much of public life, by the Taliban.

Mah, 22, fled from the country in August 2021 when the group swept into the capital Kabul.

She is now getting an education in the UK, starting a GCSE in English this week and she tells BBC Newsbeat: "I am happy for myself. I am safe. I have freedom. I am free."

"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 reitted 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.

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 with the Urdd's Mascot "Mistar Urdd" in Cardiff Bay - where she arrived after fleeing the Taliban

Mah’s journey to education in Cardiff was far from easy.

During the Taliban takeover, she says she fled from Helmand Province to Kandahar and then to Kabul. She woke up in the middle of the night, three days after arriving in the capital city, to find the Taliban on her street.

"If I stayed in Afghanistan, maybe they would kill me, maybe they would marry me.

"I called my mum and said 'Mum, I’m going.' She said, 'where are you going":[]}