While the Taliban’s ban on education for girls beyond the sixth grade enters its fourth consecutive year, Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission has announced the admission of around 350 Afghan students — including young women — into reputable universities across the country.
According to Dawn, a Pakistani daily, these Afghan students will pursue degrees in a variety of disciplines as part of the Allama Muhammad Iqbal Scholarship Program, under which they were granted entry into Pakistan.
Later this September, an additional 50 PhD candidates and 100 Master’s students from Afghanistan are also expected to join.
The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan noted that this initiative is part of a larger scholarship project for Afghan nationals, which has allocated a total of 4,500 scholarships for Afghan students at the undergraduate, Master’s, and doctoral levels.
The commission has not yet released specific figures on how many of the admitted students are women.
Previously, Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan’s Special Envoy to Afghanistan, stated that more than 5,000 Afghan girls had applied for the Allama Iqbal scholarships.
Since reclaiming power, the Taliban have prohibited girls from attending school beyond grade six and have so far ignored all calls to revoke this ban.
Over the past four years, Afghan girls have sought to continue their education through online learning platforms or by securing educational scholarships abroad — with Pakistan now becoming one of their most significant destinations for higher education.
