Female medical students from Afghanistan to finish studies in Scotland
Nineteen female medical students will finish their studies in Scotland after the Taliban banned women from attending university in Afghanistan. After the group took back control of the country there years ago, it clamped down on women’s rights including the right to an education.
The Linda Norgrove Foundation charity worked with both the British and Scottish governments in arranging visas and guaranteeing places at medical schools.
“We endured one thousand days of suffering to reach this point,” said Omulbanin Sultani, one of the students. “One thousand days of being confined to our homes, of having our voices silenced with nothing but tears and sorrow, our lives wasting away.”
The Linda Norgrove Foundation highlighted their struggles last year. But efforts to bring the medical students to the UK were held back by bureaucracy and regulations. Conflicts both in Ukraine and the Middle East made matters more complicated and added further pressure on the government, the charity added. But it thanked both the government of Scotland and the UK government’s Scotland Office for finding ways to overcome these hurdles.
The foundation was founded in memory of aid worker Linda Norgrove from Uig in Lewis who was killed in Afghanistan in 2010. It has raised the £60,000 needed to cover the cost of bringing the nineteen women to the UK and accommodating them in Scotland.
“But throughout these harsh and unbearable days, the only motivation of light in our dark world was the presence of the Linda Norgrove Foundation, who stood beside us and never let us feel alone,” Ms Sultani said.
“We’re all delighted to have finally succeeded after so much frustration,” John Norgrove from the foundation said. “Finally these 19 incredibly talented young women get their future back with the opportunity of a tremendous education and a career. The alternative for them in Afghanistan wasn’t good.”
Student visas were offered as an alternative to the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme in bringing them to the UK. The Scottish government also amended the student funding regulations, allowing them to be treated as home students.
