Latest news with #OmulbaninSultani
The Herald Scotland
6 hours ago
- Health
- The Herald Scotland
Female student who fled Afghanistan finds 'second home in Scotland'
Muzhda Iqbal said she had 'lost all hope' after the Taliban banned women from university education. A woman who fled Afghanistan to pursue her childhood dream of becoming a doctor has said Scotland is now her second home. In August 2024, she joined 18 other women who were brought to Scotland to study medicine as part of a scheme by Scottish charity The Linda Norgrove Foundation, along with the UK and Scottish governments. The 27-year-old met up with her fellow Afghans in Edinburgh at a reception hosted by Scotland Office minister Kristy McNeil. Ms Iqbal said she has 'experienced such wonderful kindness' since moving to Dundee, where she now studies. Omulbanin Sultani attends a reception at the UK Government's Queen Elizabeth House in Edinburgh (Image: Craig Meighan/PA Wire) She said: 'My hope was telling me just go and continue your education, and the future you always dreamed of. 'So, I made this decision and my family encouraged me to become a doctor because it was my childhood dream.' Ms Iqbal said her aunt had died in Afghanistan while pregnant because her family did not allow her to see a male doctor while there was a lack of female doctors. 'It was the hardest, disappointing, most heartbroken day in my life that I lost my auntie because of lack of female doctor,' she said. 'And it made me strong in my decision to become a doctor.' She said she hopes to go back to Afghanistan one day when it is safe. Until then, she is enjoying her time in Scotland. 'I've experienced such wonderful things,' she said. 'The kindness. The people are very friendly, kindly and they welcome me warmly, and they make me feel like I belong here. 'It's a very positive thing that I experience here because I'm far away from my family, even though sometimes they're not giving me the sense that I'm away, I have a family here and second home in Scotland.' READ MORE: Omulbanin Sultani said Scotland has given her opportunities that are not available for her in Afghanistan. The 22-year-old, who studied at St Andrews, wants to become a dermatologist and, one day, move back to her homeland. She told PA she misses her family – who she has not seen since July 2024 – 'so much' but manages to contact them over the internet most days. Ms Sultani is safe now in Fife but she said it was not easy to leave the Taliban's rule. 'We were not allowed to get out without a male partner,' she said. 'It was challenging to deal with the conditions where you're not certain you'll be able to do the opportunity you can only get once in your life. It was difficult.' The student said it was after she finished her second semester at university in her home country that women were banned from education. Six months later, the Linda Norgrove Foundation stepped in. 'It was a great feeling,' she said. 'When you lose something, and you know how valuable it was, and you get it again, you get that feeling.' Ms Sultani said she had heard while in Afghanistan that Scots were 'famously friendly'. Staying here for the past year, she says that has proven to be true. She said: 'When we first came here we were walking around Edinburgh and it was an atmosphere of friendly people, a place where everyone is respected and here where we are in St Andrews it's so international and friendly.' The medical student even enjoys the Scottish weather, saying: 'It's unusual but I love it. Where I come from it's hot and when you come to this weather, you like it. I hear people don't like it but I love this weather.' Scotland Office Kirsty McNeill (left) with Afghan medical students (Image: Craig Meighan/PA Wire) Kirsty McNeill, a minister at the Scotland office and MP for Midlothian, said it was important to celebrate the 19 Afghan women landing in Scotland a year ago on Monday. She said: 'This will be transformational for the 19 students involved. 'Of course, they had lifelong dreams to be doctors, and here in Scotland we're helping them to fulfil them. 'We can't solve every problem, but the problems that we can solve through schemes like this, we will always try to.' Ms McNeill said the first year had been a success, with all 19 women continuing their studies into second year. She added: 'We've given all the support we can and they're still here and they're thriving. 'They're incredibly resilient women, as of course you'd have to be.'
BBC News
20 hours ago
- General
- BBC News
'In Scotland I can pursue medicine dreams the Taliban took away'
Even in the summer months, when her university classes are on a break, Omulbanin Sultani studies six days a 22-year-old dreams of becoming a dermatologist one day and serving the people of her homeland, was one of 19 medical students who were brought to Scotland a year ago as part of a scheme arranged by the Isle of Lewis-based charity The Linda Norgrove Foundation and the UK and Scottish programme allows them to continue studies they were forced to give up when the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan three years ago and clamped down on women's rights. Omulbanin was placed at St Andrews University and has taken to revising in the university late at when she is not there she enjoys spending time on West Sands beach and exploring other Scottish towns and cities. She told BBC Scotland News: "I have learned that around the world everything is just the same. The education system is the same."We all laugh the same, we are all sad in the same way. It's just the language we speak that is different."Omulbanin was forced to leave her family as well as her fiancé at home to pursue her she said a potential future at home has kept her motivated."If I was not engaged to him, I wouldn't be able to come here and to make my dream come true," she said."He's one of my motivations and why I want to continue this sacrificing."I will have years being far from my family, being far from my fiancé, and won't be able to do what I want but there are a lot of years coming where I can do that."It's joyful to imagine the days that are waiting for me." Omulbanin estimates that it will take about 10 years for her to become a qualified said she was inspired by seeing an aunt struggle to access care from a female medic when she was a Afghanistan, many women are unable to receive treatment from a male that dream was snatched away in December 2022, when the Taliban announced that women would no longer be able to attend university, with immediate effect."The night before they called us to say that tomorrow you cannot come to university, university is banned," she said."I think I cried the whole night, it was something that hurt our spirit more than our body."Some girls lost the motivation for everything, and they just focused on being just a good wife, bringing up children, but that's annoying for someone who dreams of being something besides a mother."She added: "I was trying to tell my brain that I should accept this condition, stay at home, just cook or anything."But then I was like no, it's not the way. If everybody in the world says that everything is possible, for me it should be also the same." 'I try to be an example for my sister' Omlubanin used all her spare time to study medicine and dermatology years ago, she learned that she had been selected as a part of a small group that would be allowed to come to Scotland to Linda Norgrove Foundation, set up in memory of an aid worker who was killed in Afghanistan in 2010, raised £600,000 to cover the cost of getting the 19 women to the UK and accommodating them in is grateful every day for the opportunity and often thinks of the women left behind with no educational prospects, including her 15-year-old said: "On the days that I video call my family, I show them my university, my books, the library, and my little sister says it is her dream to be able to study in a library."So, I just try and be a good example for her, so that she tries her best and gets a chance to get out of Afghanistan and study."I want her to become something and be able to do something for Afghanistan." A UK government event in Edinburgh on Monday will celebrate a year since the students arrived in is a time to recognise their achievements, but Omulbanin's thoughts are always of home."I hope there comes a day in Afghanistan when women can do whatever they want," she said."I hope we can be happy and not worry about a fundamental right which is education."
