In a country where girls were once banned from attending school, an Afghan teenager came first out of 170,000 students for her university entrance exams – and dreams of creating an even brighter future for Afghanistan.
“Medicine will help me do that, but I’d like to strive further to work for the women of Afghanistan,” says Shamsia Alizada, who now plans to study to become a brain surgeon at the University of Kabul. “One day, I’d even like to be the first female president.”
The Taliban’s regime was overthrown almost 20 years ago, but women’s rights are still fragile. Around 2.2 million girls still don’t attend school, and less than 30% of Afghan women are literate, according to United Nations agencies. Alizada’s ambitious dreams have a social dimension to them: “Ten years from now, I’m not only hoping to practice medicine, but I’m also hoping that women across Afghanistan – in both big cities and small villages – will have opportunities to rise and to change the future of this country. I want to help make this happen.”
