Women heading back to higher education

For the first time in five years, an estimated one thousand women throughout Afghanistan participated in university entrance examinations this year. Wednesday’s event offers fresh hope to thousands of women seeking higher education denied them by the Taliban.

"I am so happy," Suma Walizada told IRIN excitedly from her desk at Kabul University, "I want to be a doctor," she said. High hopes given her past. This is the first time she had been back to
college since she graduated from high school in 1996; the same year Taliban militants marched into the Afghan capital, the 22-year-old explained.

Afghanistan’s newly appointed minister of women’s affairs, Dr Sima Samar, was emotional. "I’m so proud - so happy that it has happened after so many years," she said at the opening ceremony of the exams. "This is a good sign that many women will be able to continue their education. I’m really amazed," she added.

Within three months of the capture of Kabul, the hard line Islamists closed 63 schools, affecting over 100,000 girls and some 8,000 female teachers. Of the 10,000 students at Kabul University, 4,000 were women.

The imposition of the Taliban’s strict gender policies, denying women the right to education and employment, forced Walizada and millions of other Afghan women to a life led at home - and behind a veil.

But on Wednesday, Walizada was just one of thousands of young Afghans looking to the future with renewed hope. Professor Mohammad Akbar Popal, recently appointed Chancellor of Kabul University, told IRIN of the 3,000 people who took Wednesday’s exam in Kabul some 500 women participated, while another 500 participated in one of five other exam locations throughout the country.

"Some 500 women participated in Kabul alone"

"Altogether between seven and eight thousand men and women participated nationwide," he said. Located at the foot of the Koh-i-Asmai Mountain in the western part of the city, Kabul University has some 14 faculties, including law, engineering, education and philosophy. Additionally, there are five other institutes of higher education located throughout the country, including another in Kabul, the western city of Herat, the southern city of Kandahar, the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, and the eastern province of Nangahar.

Commenting on the significance of the exams, director of the United Nation’s Educational and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Kabul office, Martin Hadlow told IRIN that the thousands of young Afghans who had arrived to take Wednesday’s exams had inspired him. "Afghans place an extremely high value on education. They see it as the key to their future," he maintained. The Paris-based group and leading UN agency for education was a major sponsor of this year’s examinations.

Echoing its significance, Sharif Fayez, minister of higher education told IRIN: "This is probably our greatest day after 20 years of war and conflict," adding: "Today we deliver Kabul University from ideological conflict. This will be a liberated university where we will appreciate knowledge, research and acknowledge academic performance," he explained.