Activists call Canada to help Afghan women facing deportation due to Trump’s administration cuts

Sunny Tuesday morning in Vancouver, Hela Sedeqi is out of school she attended since September, after arrived in Canada last summer.

Sedeqi, 19, missed several years of schooling in her native land, Afghanistan. Now she finishes 11th grade at Cofton House School, an elite private school.

But with a recent decrease in financing under the administration of US President Donald Trump, she cares for other Afghan women like her, she will not have the same opportunity for formal education.

He says that she is an opportunity to learn far from Afghanistan under the supervision of Taliban changed her life and fear for other women who received scholarships who funded the US who are expected to be abolished this summer.

“It’s hearty. Thinking of yourself in that position is terrible,” Sedeqi told CBC News.

More than 120 Afghan women must lose scholarships funded by the US International Development Agency (USAID), which allowed them to attend universities in cities like Qatar and Oman.

Trump’s administration canceled a scholarship program as part of a overturning of USAID, accusing agency for widespread waste and criticism His programs for not alignment with US foreign policy goals.

In the E -Land, in February, which was examined by CBC News, USAID Afghan -trapped for scholarships for women informed students that their scholarships would be abolished and that they would get “arrangements for travel back to Afghanistan”.

Activists now invite the Canadian government and universities to help women study here, warning that students could face a terrible and potentially dangerous life consequences if they return to the reign of Taliban.

Taliban prohibition of education

The Talibans banned women in most areas of public life and stopped girls to go to school after 6th grade as part of the sharp measures they imposed after they took over the government in 2021 after the withdrawal of US forces, despite promising more moderate rule.

According to 2023 data Of the United Nations, at least 1.4 million Afghan girls are forbidden to approach secondary education of 2021, while more than 100,000 have been rejected access to post secondary education.

The Talibani also conduct a strict dress code, arresting women who are not in line with their interpretation of a hijab or an Islamic scarf. United Nations and other human rights organizations reported that some women were undergoing cruel penalties, including stoning and flowering.

Friba Rezayee is the executive director of women’s leaders of tomorrow, a non-profit organization based in Vancouver who helped to provide about a dozen Afghan students, including Sedeqi, a scholarship to study at BC

He says she is overwhelmed by the recipient messages of a USAID scholarship who is desperately seeking help.

“It’s a really scary situation because nothing is safe for them,” she said in an interview.

Panic attacks

The USAID scholarships were supposed to be funded by 2028, but a spokesman for the US State Department for CBC News said this week that the Government would finance scholarships by June 30 this year.

A spokesman did not answer the questions whether the government would ensure financing after that date.

A Women’s Scholarship for CBC News said that the Scholarship Scholarship Program would be acted on June 30 and intended to work with a USAID and a state department to request an extension that would allow all students to graduate.

Federal judge on Tuesday ruling that the dismantling of the USAID probably broke the Constitution, but still unclear what it means for USAID surgery.

CBC News spoke with one of the students who studied in Qatar, who had a year left in his program.

“A lot of girls had panic attacks, so we had to take them to the hospital … They struggle with stress and anxiety,” she said.

CBC News does not appoint a student because he has worries about his safety if he returns to Afghanistan.

“We knock on all the doors we can to find a scholarship or anything so that we can go and continue our education and not return to Afghanistan,” she said.

Rezayee said she hoped that the Universities of Canada and the Federal Government would support.

Murwarid Ziayee, senior director of Canadian non -profit right to learn Afghanistan, agrees.

“They need this kind of support more than ever before,” she said. “There are options to step up and adapt to responding to the current crisis.”

‘Where there is a will, there is a way’

Christina Clark-Kašak, a professor at the University of Ottawa, specializing in forced migration, says Afghan students would face many challenges trying to come to Canada.

“The question is that you cannot give a scholarship if a person is not physically able to enter Canada,” she said.

She said that the best bet would be to students to apply for a student visa, but she noted that there is a high rejection rate for people who are unlikely to return to their country of origin and that the Federal Government has placed a limit of new international studies permit.

Clark-Kašak said universities can offer scholarships, but that Ottawin’s help will need to bring students to Canada.

She said that universities had previously intensified in the time of crises, including in 2015.

“Where there is a will, there is a way,” she said.

In a statement to CBC News, Canada Global Alfairs said he coordinated closely with “the stakeholders of education in Afghanistan to understand the impact of a reduction in USAIDs on educational programs”.

“Canada is concerned about the potential long -term influences of reduced financing of vulnerable people around the world. This has been said, we admit that each country has the right to determine its own development assistance, foreign policy priorities and organizational structures,” Global jobs said.

Sedeqi hopes that all efforts have been made to try to bring recipients of the Scholarship of the USAID Canada or other countries.

“That’s the only thing we can help them and even save their lives,” she said.

“We won’t let them go back to Afghanistan.”