Nilab still remembers the day Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021. He was at the bank trying to pay his sister’s passport in preparation to flee the country.
Dressed in a red job of work and with discovered hair, each taxi driver refused to take her home. Nilab, 29, says they feared that the Taliban would kill him for taking a walk without a male guardian.
At that time, I had a professional job and I was studying at the American University of Afghanistan. His father worked for the United States government. The family had to flee. She says that going out was dangerous enough, and returning is not an option.
“There is no return to Afghanistan,” Nilab said by video calls from his bedroom in Qatar, where he has studied computer science during the last three years. CBC News has agreed to hide its identity due to security concerns.
If she and her sister return to Afghanistan, they would probably be trapped as soon as they terrify at the airport, she said.
“They would torture us. They would kill us.”
Both women are currently facing the deportation of Qatar after the Usaid program spit made their studies in the so -called “campus in exile” of the American University of Afghanistan in Doha.
The female scholarships in the Middle East were completely “dependent and dependent on the USAID funds,” said Friba Rezayee, executive director of Women Leaders of Tomorrow, a non -profit organization based in Vancouver who works to match Afghan women with scholarships in the United States and Canada.
When Usaid was defended, women “basically stayed to cry.”
Without a valid work study or permit, Nilab must leave Qatar in September, when his current Qatar residence permit expires. Up to 25 women in the same situation expect to find security at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan.
The university and leaders of the women of tomorrow are working to raise half a million dollars to cover the international registration rates of women and take them to Canada.
Currently, they have raised around $ 170,000, said Rezaeee.
“They ran out of hope, certainty or light in their lives,” said Rezayee.
The students approached her, and Rezaee gave a call to Canadian postsecundarias schools asking for help. The University of Regina was one of the first universities to take a step forward and help, said Rezayee.
“They are willing to present the work. They are willing to do all the paperwork.”
U de r says that it has space for all students present
The president of the University of Regina, Jeff Keshen, says that the school is doing everything possible to provide support to students and raise funds.
University launched its Project resilience Scholarship program in 2022, to provide students with war, conflict or political violence in their countries of origin with funds to study at the University of Regina.
“We will provide you with a free home and a meal plan, as long as they will pay international registration,” said Keshen, added that the school has the “luxury” of space on the campus.
“We are one of the places in Canada that actually has the capacity to accept students on our campus, in rooms,” said Keshen, “we don’t have a housing crisis in U of R.”
The fund of fundraising of $ 500,000 would cover all the students presented by women leaders of tomorrow. Currently, Keshen said there is enough money to bring “part of those students”, pending the approval of the federal government for their study permits.
“If we can’t do everything, we will do what we can,” Keshen said.
All future students are “very talented”, since many have attended professional schools and are in the middle of their masters, Keshen said.
“We hope to help these students so worthy of having a new opportunity at the University of Regina, instead of returning to what will be horrible circumstances,” said Keshen.
He said the University discovered that immigration, refugees and citizenship of Canada (IRCC) have been operating at a “glacial rhythm” to process international students.
“Unfortunately, the rejection rate is very high or these applications are simply processed. They feel and wait and then the default student does not arrive here,” Keshen said.
“This is really a federal problem at this time,” he said. “The ball is on the Ottawa court now.”
In a statement to CBC, IRCC acknowledged that some students, including those with acceptance letters to Canadian schools, “may have experienced greater processing times for their requests for study permits.”
“While an admission offer is an important step, it does not automatically lead to a study permit,” the statement said.
“Highly trained officers who carefully and systematically evaluate each application against the criteria established in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Law (IRPA) and its regulations,” said the statement.
Rezayee said that even if the 25 women can come to Saskatchewan, it will still remain more in Qatar.
“We are trying to help as many as we can,” he said.
Currently, the women’s leaders of tomorrow are looking for volunteers in Regina to help women establish themselves in their new communities, such as giving women a tour of the city and helping them find a doctor.
She said the group wants to begin the process of the admission letter, although the final number of how many can come is still determining.
A interrupted life
Nilab said he has been in contact with the University of Regina about what he will study, but his younger sister is still waiting for news. The two are separated from the rest of their family, which could emigrate to the United States before President Donald Trump restricted the entry of Afghan citizens to the United States.
Nilab had already sent all Qatar belongings to the United States when the policy change was made.
“My clothes are in the United States and I’m still here,” he said, joking that if he arrives in Canada, it will be “easier” to recover them.
But being separated from his family is painful, he said. “It’s as if the part of your body is here, another part of your body is with them.”
She said she will only go to Canada if her sister can also do it, regardless of how much she wants to finish her education.
“I registered for my degree in 2018. Then many things happened,” said Nilab. If the Taliban had not overturned the trajectory of their life, he would have already graduated and had a doctorate, he said.
“But I’m still stuck,” Nilab said.
She wants to complete a master’s degree in AI and her sister plans to obtain a master’s degree in cybersecurity.
Nilab says he is sad that he could not study in the United States “, but another hope is that [the university of] Regina will help us obtain our teachers, not in the United States, but in Canada. “
