“I am a government staffer, and if I go back to Afghanistan, they will kill me. The Taliban are now searching for ex-government officials and I don’t know what to do as my financial condition is very bad”, says Rasheed*, a native of Herat in Afghanistan, about the Taliban coming back to power in his country. Rasheed is among the 2,000 Afghan students who are studying in India as part of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) scholarships. The scholarships are provided to over 6,000 foreign nationals interested in studying about Indian culture. Rasheed is pursuing a Master’s in public policy from the MG University in Kerala’s Kottayam.
He enrolled in the ICCR scholarship while working with the Afghan police, as a manager of cultural and ideology under the Ashraf Ghani government. He came to India in 2019, and there were six students from Afghanistan in his class at MG University. Like Rasheed, there are thousands of Afghan students who are afraid to go back home after completing their studies, fearing the Taliban who are in power. “Since the Taliban seized power, we have demanded the government of India to extend our scholarship, as it is not safe to go back to Afghanistan now”, he says, and adds that many among the Afghan student community are echoing similar views. Apart from the 2,000 students who are availing the (ICCR) scholarship, there are at least 14,000 other students studying under self financing colleges and availing other scholarships in Indian universities.
Rasheed says he is afraid of the Taliban’s curtailing of freedoms, and added that the present takeover is no different from the terror outfit’s 1996-2001 regime. Though the Taliban has said that they will uphold women’s rights under Sharia and that they will not be discriminated against, they have already been banned from going to work, must be fully covered when stepping out, and are in constant danger. “The women were not allowed to go out or go to work. They cannot move out without men accompanying them. Women are not allowed to study. Media freedom is not allowed and the freedom of expression is not allowed. The men are compulsorily supposed to grow a moustache and beard", Rasheed says. He adds, “The current Taliban is saying that they will give some rights to the women. They are also claiming that they will form a good government this time. However, going by their history and the deeds they are perpetrating, it is most likely that these are just words. The people of Afghanistan are scared that the Taliban has come to power. This is evident from the jostling and rush at the airports to leave the country. Since the USA also left, now Afghanistan is completely in the hands of the Taliban. We are uncertain of the future of the country.”
Many Afghan students in India that TNM reached out refused to comment, fearing retribution from the Taliban.
Under the ICCR, the Special Scholarship Scheme for Afghan Nationals (SSSAN) was constituted by then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, after his visit to Afghanistan in August 2005 for students to study university-level courses. Under this, 1,000 scholarships are granted to Afghan students every year, raised from 500 scholarships in 2012-13.
Khaleef*, a former Afghan student who studied at the MG University under the ICCR scholarship scheme, told TNM from Kabul that his friends and cousins were assaulted and attacked while trying to reach the Kabul airport in a bid to leave the country. “A Taliban official told my friend that they will not let Hazara people go out of Afghanistan and they will die here. Hazaras, an ethnic minority, are Shia Muslims. The Taliban have long been targeting them”, Khaleef tells TNM.
He adds that he himself saw that men are beaten for wearing trousers or for wearing their hair long. Women are barely seen outside anymore. “But more than that, everyone outside Afghanistan should understand that Taliban are misbehaving with ethnic minorities like Shias and other religious minorities”, Khaleef says.
The Taliban are also hunting down those who worked for the previous democratic government, and are conducting raids on homes, humiliating the families, Khaleef adds.
*Names changed