Afghan loom2/1/2024 The 20-year-old Saskatoon student will be pursuing her bachelor’s degree at the University of Saskatchewan, starting this fall, through the scholarship. It was reminding me how much I’ve gone through and how far I've come." "It was a flashback to my worst days of life while travelling to Pakistan and then to Canada. “Succeeding in each step of the scholarship’s application, I was realizing that I have the ability, and it gave me the power and energy to try more,” said Arjmand. ![]() The $100,000 scholarships are awarded over four years to eligible students planning to attend one of 25 participating universities in Canada.įor Arjmand, going through the process was not only a chance to plan for the future, but a reminder of what she’d left behind. Those behind it say they believe “integrity, courage, grit and personal autonomy are better indicators of overall potential than standard academic measures.” The award is one of several offered through the Loran Scholars Foundation, and includes an annual stipend, tuition waiver and personal mentorship with a Canadian leader, as well as funding for internships. Arjmand was chosen out of the approximately 5,000 students from across Canada who apply every year. She is celebrating her win of the prestigious Loran Scholarship, an award valued at more than $100,000. Recalling the Taliban takeover made Arjmand, who is now finishing her high school diploma at Nutana Collegiate in Saskatoon, sad again, but despite the circumstances that brought her to Canada, here she is thriving. I was hoping someone would wake me up and say 'this was all part of a game.'” will come back, or a miracle will happen and everything will be fixed again. collapse over the course of a day? I was thinking that the U.S. How can a country with some of the best equipment and support provided by the U.S. ![]() “At first, I was thinking that this was all a game, or I was dreaming. Her three siblings are scattered, with one in Afghanistan, one in the U.S. It was so sudden, she said, she even couldn’t say goodbye to her friends and classmates.Īrjmand, along with her father and mother, arrived in Saskatoon in October 2021. She took her mom and dad to neighbouring Pakistan, and from there to Canada. Eventually, she realized her family’s best option was to flee the country they called home. Umulbanin Arjmand (Photo: supplied)“Depressed” and “exhausted,” Arjmand had no idea what to do. If one of them had shot me in the head no one would ask why.” I was scared because the Taliban is not (held accountable) for torturing and killing people. Although I had covered myself with hijab, still I was not feeling safe. “In the three weeks that I was in Kabul, only once I went out with my sister to buy groceries. In a matter of weeks, Arjmand saw a lot of things change, including several new restrictions imposed on girls and women – restrictions that her generation had experienced before, such as banning girls from school and women from work. I could see from there that six armed Talibs riding three motorbikes went to the police station and raised their white flag and took the former government flag down,” recalled Arjmand. “I went to the roof of our house to see what was going on outside. ![]() ![]() It didn’t take so long for Arjmand to realize that the Taliban fighters had entered Kabul city and taken control of the police station, located close to her house. “I had two exams left at school when I was asked not to go to school anymore because I was a girl,” Arjmand said, referencing a Taliban-imposed ban on education for women and girls. That day would be her last at her school. No one had told Arjmand, but the Taliban were almost in the city. “It was like calm before the storm,” Arjamand told CTVNews.ca. Unlike the previous day, the normally bustling Dasht-e-Barchi – in the west of Kabul city where Arjmand was living and attending school – was silent. Two years ago, Arjmand was on her way back home after attending a midterm exam at Marefat High School in Kabul when she realized that the situation in the city was not the same as it was the day before. Umulbanin Arjmand was awarded a Loran scholarship, given out based on "character, service and leadership potential," according to the University of Saskatchewan’s website. An Afghan girl who fled the Taliban in 2021 won a scholarship worth $100,000, which will help her to study at a Canadian university.
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