Despite living under the Taliban’s grip, four Afghan women have won scholarships to study at Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok. The women were chosen based on their academic records, and determination to promote women’s participation in Afghan society. The executive director of the Thai Pipe Industry told the Bangkok Post the women will be role models and mentors to women in their fields in Afghanistan, and around the world. The executive director said the scholarships will change lives.
“… the life of the scholarship recipients, the lives of the people in their families, and eventually the lives of other people in society”.
The president of AIT said the university wanted to help the women when it heard they faced challenges getting a higher education. She said AIT was able to find donors for the scholarships who also cared about the women’s futures. AIT awarded them the scholarships on International Women’s Day this week.
The Thai Pipe Industry, Osotpa Public Co, and the CEO of Christiani Nielson Energy Solutions, are sponsoring the scholarships.
Since seizing power of Afghanistan in August last year, the Taliban has halted two critical decades of progress for women’s rights in Afghanistan. The Taliban said at first that they would allow girls to go to school. While primary schools for girls reopened, very few schools for older girls did.
SOURCE: Bangkok Post | Afghanistan Analysts Network