Scholarships have helped displaced Afghan college students discover houses on college campuses throughout the US

DALLAS — Because the Taliban swept again into energy in Afghanistan in the summertime of 2021, Fahima Sultani and her fellow college college students tried for days to get into the Kabul airport, solely to be turned away by gun-wielding extremists.

“No training, simply return residence,” she recalled one shouting.

Almost two years later, Sultani, now 21, is safely within the U.S. and dealing towards her bachelor’s diploma in information science at Arizona State College in Tempe on a scholarship. When she’s not finding out, she likes to hike up close by Tempe Butte, the form of outing she loved in her mountainous homeland.

Seeing college students like Sultani rush to depart in August 2021 because the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan after 20 years, schools, universities and different teams throughout the U.S. began piecing collectively the funding for tons of of scholarships so they might proceed their training outdoors of their residence nation.

Girls of Sultani’s technology, born across the time the U.S. ousted the Taliban after the 9/11 assaults in 2001, grew up attending faculty and watching as ladies pursued careers. The Taliban’s return upended these freedoms.

“Inside minutes of the collapse of the federal government in Kabul, U.S. universities mentioned, ‘We’ll take one;’ ‘We’ll take three;’ ‘We’ll take a professor;’ ‘We’ll take a pupil,’” mentioned Allan Goodman, CEO of the Institute of Worldwide Schooling, a worldwide not-for-profit that helps fund such scholarships.

The fears main the scholars to rapidly board flights had been quickly justified because the Taliban ushered in a harsh Islamic rule: Ladies can’t attend faculty past the sixth grade and ladies, as soon as once more required to put on burqas, have been banned from universities, parks and gymnasiums and are restricted from most employment.

Sultani is one in all greater than 60 Afghan ladies who arrived at ASU by December 2021 after fleeing Afghanistan, the place she’d been finding out on-line by way of Asian College for Girls in Bangladesh in the course of the pandemic.

“These ladies got here out of a disaster, a traumatic expertise, boarded a aircraft not realizing the place they had been going, ended up within the U.S.,” mentioned Susan Edgington, govt director and head of operations of ASU’s World Educational Initiatives.

After making their technique to universities and schools throughout the U.S. during the last two years, many are nearing commencement and planning their futures.

Mashal Aziz, 22, was just a few months from graduating from American College of Afghanistan when Kabul fell and he or she boarded a aircraft. After leaving, she started scouring the web, researching which colleges had been providing scholarships and what organizations may be capable to assist.

“You’ve already left all the pieces and you might be considering perhaps there are boundaries in your greater training,” Aziz mentioned.

She and three different Afghan college students arrived at Northeastern College in Boston in January 2022 after first being taken to Qatar after which a army base in New Jersey.

Aziz graduated this spring with a bachelor’s diploma in finance and accounting administration. She plans to begin engaged on her grasp’s diploma in finance this fall at Northeastern.

The hurdles for college students who left can embody all the pieces from needing assist to beat language boundaries to getting credit score for the programs they accomplished of their residence nation to affording tuition, Aziz mentioned.

Simply two days after the autumn of Kabul, the College of Tulsa in Oklahoma introduced it had created two scholarships for Afghans searching for refuge within the U.S. Later, the college created 5 extra scholarships that went to among the younger Afghans who settled within the space. 5 extra Afghans have obtained scholarships to check there this fall.

Danielle Macdonald, an affiliate anthropology professor on the faculty, has organized a daily meetup between TU college students and college-aged Afghans who’ve settled within the Tulsa space.

Round two dozen younger individuals attend the occasions, the place they speak about all the pieces from U.S. slang to discovering jobs. Their outings have included visiting a museum and going to a basketball recreation, Macdonald mentioned.

“It’s change into a extremely beautiful neighborhood,” she mentioned.

For a lot of younger individuals leaving Afghanistan, familiarity with the U.S. made the nation a pure vacation spot.

That was the case for Hamasa Zeerak, 24, and her 30-year-old husband, Hussain Saifnijat. In Kabul, Zeerak attended the American College of Afghanistan, whereas Saifnijat labored for a U.S.-based know-how firm.

They each started finding out at Rutgers College, in New Jersey, final fall. He could possibly graduate as early as this fall with a grasp’s diploma in electrical and pc engineering. She is finding out to get her bachelor’s diploma in enterprise administration and graduates in 2025.

“My worries had been quite a bit originally as a result of I used to be serious about the best way to proceed our life in America; how can we discover a job?” Zeerak mentioned. “It was aggravating originally however all the pieces goes easy.”

Sultani, like many others who left Afghanistan, usually thinks about those that remained behind, together with her sister, who had been finding out at a college, however now should keep residence.

“I can go to universities whereas hundreds of thousands of women again in Afghanistan, they don’t have this chance that I’ve,” Sultani mentioned. “I can costume the best way I would like and hundreds of thousands of women now in Afghanistan, they don’t have this chance.”

There might be 20 Afghans finding out this fall at Western Kentucky College in Bowling Inexperienced. Atifa Kabuli, 46, had studied nursing there for the final two semesters however now could be targeted on finding out for exams that can permit her to observe medication within the U.S.

Older than many of the arriving college students, Kabuli left behind her profession as an a obstetrician and gynecologist. Throughout the Taliban’s first rule, from 1996 to 2001, she was solely capable of proceed her training by finding out in Pakistan.

When the Taliban regained management, she knew she and her husband must go away so their daughters, now 15 and 10, would be capable to proceed going to highschool. Her time at WKU, she mentioned, helped her discover the boldness to pursue a medical license within the U.S.

Because the preliminary flurry of scholarships, efforts to help Afghan college students have continued, together with the creation of the Qatar Scholarship for Afghans Challenge, which has helped fund 250 scholarships at dozens of U.S. schools and universities.

However there are nonetheless extra younger individuals in want of assist to proceed their educations within the U.S. and even attain the U.S. from Afghanistan or different international locations, defined Jonah Kokodyniak, a senior vice chairman on the Institute of Worldwide Schooling.

Yasamin Sohrabi, 26, is amongst these nonetheless looking for a technique to the U.S. Sohrabi, who had been finding out regulation at American College of Afghanistan, realized because the withdrawal of U.S. forces neared that she may have to go abroad to proceed her research. The day after the Taliban took Kabul, she realized of her admission to WKU however wasn’t capable of get into the airport to depart Afghanistan.

A 12 months later, she and her youthful sister, who additionally has been accepted on the college, bought visas to Pakistan. Now they’re looking for a technique to get into the U.S. Their brother, who accompanied them to Pakistan, is making use of to the varsity, as nicely.

Sohrabi mentioned she and her siblings strive to not give attention to what they’ve misplaced, however as an alternative on the best way to get to the U.S. to proceed their research.

“That is one of many issues in as of late we take into consideration,” she mentioned. “It retains us going.”