Suspension of higher education
Following the ‘suspension’ of higher education for women in Afghanistan, we are no longer able to provide scholarships. In August 2024 we succeeded in bringing 19 medical students to Scotland to continue their studies – find out more.
One of the most important and long-lasting ways we have supported women in Afghanistan is by funding their education.
We provided scholarships for women studying to be doctors, midwives and dentists. And we also sponsored young women studying law, economics or business studies. The women had to overcome many hardships to get to university and continued to face difficulties while studying.
At the time higher education for women was suspended, 137 women studying medicine, midwifery and nursing were being sponsored by the Linda Norgrove Foundation.
Read Lorna Norgrove’s blog on the courage Afghan women needed to study.
Read about some of the students we were sponsoring below.
Tayaba, 21, is from Kabul Province and has completed four years of medical studies – her recent average grade was a very impressive 97%. There are seven people in her family: her parents, three brothers and a sister.
Her father was working as a driver but lost his job after the Taliban took over. Her mother is a tailor and her monthly income is around £95. Tayaba’s elder brother was studying computer science in a private university but after their father lost his job they couldn’t afford to pay his fees and he had to leave.
Tayaba took leave from her studies for one semester to try and find a solution. Fortunately, she found out about the Linda Norgrove Foundation Scholarship, and her successful application should have enabled her to continue her studies.
Mina is 23 and had completed two years of medical school. Her father was a school teacher but, after the Taliban takeover, he lost his job and couldn’t afford to pay the university fees. The LNF scholarship should have enabled her to continue her studies.
According to Mina, there is no female doctor in her home province, Paktika, where 800,000 people live, and women face many difficulties. Mina’s ambition had been that after graduation she would go back to her province and work there to help women.
Noor is 17 years old and from the extremely remote Nooristan Province. Her father died when she was 7 and now her mother is working the family land, helped by Noor’s two sisters and two brothers.
When her father died, her aunt brought her to Kabul but, after the Taliban take-over, her aunt left Afghanistan.
Her aunt paid Noor’s first semester’s fee but, now struggling herself in a new country, is unable to pay any more.
Shukria was three quarters of the way through her medical degree when the Taliban took over.
Her father had supported her studies but the government no longer pays his work pension. Two years ago, his house in their home province of Helmand was destroyed in fighting.
She worked part-time in a hospital as a nursing assistant but her pay was not enough to cover her living costs and fees. The LNF scholarship was meant to allow her to complete her studies.
Rohina had finished a year of medical studies.
Her mother, a widow, worked as a cleaner to pay for Rohina’s studies but when the Taliban took over she lost her job.
Rohina was awarded a scholarship with the aim that she would have been able to continue at university.