🔁Mario Nawfal:
🇦🇫 AFGHAN WOMEN FACE DEPORTATION AS TRUMP CUTS USAID FUNDING
More than 80 Afghan women who escaped Taliban rule to study in Oman are now facing forced return after the Trump administration froze USAID funding for their scholarships.
These students, many of whom had been pursuing STEM degrees banned for women under Taliban rule, had fled Afghanistan after the regime prohibited female higher education in 2022.
With U.S. support, they were relocated to Oman last year under the Women’s Scholarship Endowment (WSE), a program meant to fund their education until 2028.
Now, just months after their arrival, the program has been abruptly terminated under Trump’s sweeping foreign aid cuts.
The students have received emails stating their scholarships are “discontinued” and that preparations are underway for their return to Afghanistan—where they fear forced marriages, repression, or even persecution due to past activism.
The Taliban has consistently cracked down on women’s rights, enforcing what some describe as “gender apartheid.”
Despite the White House blaming Biden’s 2021 withdrawal for Afghanistan’s crisis, it is the Trump administration’s policy shift that has left these women stranded.
With deportation looming in two weeks, they are urgently pleading for protection, resettlement, and the chance to continue their education.
Source: BBC
https://x.com/MarioNawfal/... https://x.com/MarioNawfal/...
🇦🇫 AFGHAN WOMEN FACE DEPORTATION AS TRUMP CUTS USAID FUNDING
More than 80 Afghan women who escaped Taliban rule to study in Oman are now facing forced return after the Trump administration froze USAID funding for their scholarships.
These students, many of whom had been pursuing STEM degrees banned for women under Taliban rule, had fled Afghanistan after the regime prohibited female higher education in 2022.
With U.S. support, they were relocated to Oman last year under the Women’s Scholarship Endowment (WSE), a program meant to fund their education until 2028.
Now, just months after their arrival, the program has been abruptly terminated under Trump’s sweeping foreign aid cuts.
The students have received emails stating their scholarships are “discontinued” and that preparations are underway for their return to Afghanistan—where they fear forced marriages, repression, or even persecution due to past activism.
The Taliban has consistently cracked down on women’s rights, enforcing what some describe as “gender apartheid.”
Despite the White House blaming Biden’s 2021 withdrawal for Afghanistan’s crisis, it is the Trump administration’s policy shift that has left these women stranded.
With deportation looming in two weeks, they are urgently pleading for protection, resettlement, and the chance to continue their education.
Source: BBC
https://x.com/MarioNawfal/... https://x.com/MarioNawfal/...
1 day ago
