Afghan women brought to Scotland to study

[ArabellaScott]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20lrzpxklro

I know women here have supported the Linda Norgrove Foundation.

They've helped to bring students to Scotland to study.

A bit of good news for a change, although of course this is because they can't study in their homeland.

Thank you Arabella. this is wonderful to see. I do hope that the foundation can get more out.

Part of this campaign:

https://lindanorgrovefoundation.org/blog/still-fighting-for-education-for-women/

Fantastic work.

What a wonderful idea, and an amazing tribute to the aid worker the charity was founded to remember.

That's excellent. I wish the 19 all the best (and hope that more women can be brought over).

I saw this and nearly cried. When I hear about the situation for women in Afghanistan I despair. I wish we could rescue all the women and girls. What a privilege it would be to be treated by these doctors once they’ve trained. The woman speaking about how she wished she had been born a boy broke my heart. That society is fucked and I don’t know how it will change. Aren’t they wanting to bring the age of marriage down to 9?

I’m sad that these women have had to leave a beautiful country, and all their families (including men who may have valued them) - what is happening there, impoverishes their society. Wouldn’t it be great if one day they could return to teach other girls and women - when will things change?

And I hadn’t heard of the Linda Norgrove Foundation before. What a fantastic thing they’ve done to honour the memory of their daughter.

I was watching these clips earlier, it's amazing.

The marriage age proposal is Iran.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/aug/09/proposed-iraqi-law-change-would-legalise-child-say-activists

'28% of Afghan girls are married before the age of 18 and 4% are married before their 15th birthday.
7% of Afghan boys are married before the age of 18.
The lowest median age at first marriage (age by which half of respondents have been married) is in Nimroz at 15.9 years.'

https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/learning-resources/child-marriage-atlas/regions-and-countries/afghanistan/

Although there have been indications that child marriage is increasing:

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2022/8/14/ill-be-sacrificed-the-lost-and-sold-daughters-of-afghanistan

well that's good news. Must be very weird for the women involved, going from a medieval hell hole to a gender woo hell hole.

Thanks ArabellaScott for putting me right on it not being Afghanistan that was wanting to lower the marriage age. Iraq it is - my bad. I guess if you’re getting married at 9 you’re not going to get much of an education either.

I just watched the news with the parents of Linda Norgrove saying they could only afford to get 20 of about 90 female medical students out of Afghanistan to come to Scotland. 19 came and it took over 2 years and they’re going to 4 different Scottish Universities. I sincerely hope other parts of the world (including the rest of the UK) do something similar for the other 70 women. I’m sure there are many other women who would love to get out of Afghanistan too. Not a long term solution to this diabolical situation I know.

The Taliban have barred entry to the UN.

https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2024/08/un-special-rapporteur-says-committed-people-afghanistan-despite-taliban-barring

I find it hard to put myself into the shoes of Afghan women. It all feels so dystopian and unreal. So much lost potential I wonder how a country can function whilst keeping half the population prisoner. It’s amazing to see these women given the opportunity to study here though and would be great to see more schemes like this where it women given opportunities and support.

I wonder how things would go in Afghanistan if all the women and girls were somehow able to escape over the mountains to countries where they would be treated with the respect they deserve. Good luck to the new students.

It’s great news arabella

I was listening to it on the radio yesterday

Utterly delighted by this, wish we could take them all. They have brought back stoning, I remember watching “The Stoning of Soraya M”. It’s utterly horrific, just fucking barbaric. My heart aches for them.

Will they be allowed to go home and practise medicine? Or will they have to stay now they've been tainted with evil western ways?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/25/taliban-leader-akhundzada-women-stoned-death-afghanistan/

I'm not sure.

God knows that Afghanistan needs more HCPs and will be entering a deeper and deeper crisis the longer it forbids women from practising medecine.

More info on medics and women in Afghanistan:

https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/outlasting-talibans-ban-womens-medical-education

'Based on discussions with health professionals and medical students, resistance to the ban has thus far manifested not in surrender but in adaptation and moderated expectations. For example, many former medical students now pursue community midwifery education (CME), which is still allowed by the Taliban as a two-year diploma. This professional pivot ensures continued work in health care, albeit not as doctors. The Taliban's acceptance of CME could provide a potential model and pathway for smart incrementalism that enables female medical students to complete their degrees as well. '

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/12/30/veiled-rebellion-female-medical-students-go-underground-in-afghanistan

'Women already qualified as doctors, nurses and other medical workers are permitted to continue in their jobs, but no new women may enter the field or undertake training.
More than 3,000 women who had already graduated from medical schools before the ban were barred from taking the board exams required to practise, depriving the country – already struggling from a dire shortage of female medical workers – of a desperately needed infusion of new doctors.'

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/20/the-guardian-view-on-afghanistan-gender-apartheid-dont-embolden-the-taliban

'In the third round of UN talks on Afghanistan in Doha this summer, women’s and other human rights were off the agenda, and women and other civil society representatives were excluded from the table, to the fury of rights groups, campaigners, Mr Bennett and the UN’s own women’s rights committee. Fawzia Koofi, a former deputy speaker of the Afghan parliament and peace negotiator, wrote of women’s “despair, shock and disappointment”. The decision emboldened the Taliban, with their chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid lecturing the west on the need to “remove the obstacles hindering the development of relations'

I suppose there's tension between trying to help 'incrementally' by cooperating with the Taliban to try and find ways through, and the idea of not appeasing or co operating with them at all to force them to capitulate.

Either way, women will suffer.

Sorry, this was supposed to be a positive thread.

I'm not sure I see this as the positive thing it's supposed to be. If these women return to Afghanistan once their studies are complete (as they suggested this morning on tv) surely this is working in the Taliban's favour? Women in Afghanistan as I understand it have to be treated by female doctors for certain intimate procedures but how can this be sustained if women and girls can't be educated in Afghanistan!? Surely if they can study abroad then return to Afghanistan this would be preferable to the Taliban.
This is also going to sound petty and I do realise this but Scottish universities are not in a good state due to funding issues. Many Scottish school leavers cannot get (free) university places and have to study elsewhere in the UK. Have extra places been created for these Afghan women? I hope so.
Their plight and the lives of women in Afghanistan sound truly awful but I just wonder if studying abroad creates a loophole that allows similar to continue for ever.

As I said above, there's tension between trying to find workarounds to stop women dying and the need to not prop up the Taliban.

Thank you @ArabellaScott . I wasn't aware of rhe charity's role in this. I have never donated to charity before due to pressing finances but I am going to set up a small direct debit to the Linda Norgrove foundation. There can be no better cause.