The Taliban鈥檚 takeover of Afghanistan this year led to a radical makeover of the country, and science was no exception. Since the fall of the Afghan government, scores of academics have fled the country. .
鈥淚 was already afraid that I was on a list,鈥� says Hammad*, an academic who fled Afghanistan earlier this year just before the US withdrew its troops. 鈥淚 was increasingly afraid that if the Taliban came back to power鈥� they might come after me.鈥�
The rapid change reverses steady progress in recent years. A 2021 report from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) found that Afghan science had been thriving, with academics in 2019 .
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The percentage of women in higher education had also increased over the last few years. About 25 per cent of the student population were female in 2018 compared with 20 per cent in 2015, according to the UNESCO report.
Hammad says all his former colleagues have fled the country. 鈥淭he only ones who are left are those who cannot flee,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hether that be for their lack of English, bureaucratic reasons or they鈥檙e just waiting for their visa application to go through.鈥�
, a charity in the US that helps threatened academics find refuge, says it received 1250 applications from Afghanistan between August and the first week of December
, the UK equivalent of Scholars at Risk, says it has received about 620 applications from Afghan academics since August.
Stephen Wordsworth, executive director of Cara, says it is getting about 20 applications a week. He also says the charity has secured about 45 鈥渋n principle鈥� placement offers from 37 British universities.
鈥淭here is a brain drain,鈥� says Hammad. 鈥淓ven if there was science happening right now in Afghanistan, what would that actually look like? What science will the Taliban allow?鈥�
at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has spent the past few years coordinating and organising biomedical research in Afghanistan.
He says his team is still trying to carry out studies in the country. He is working on a project on the prevalence of neonatal sepsis in Afghan children. 鈥淏ut when we ask people to take part, they just kind of laugh at you for not addressing their immediate concerns,鈥� he says.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e also suspicious,鈥� Shah says. 鈥淟ike, who is this person asking me all these questions?鈥�
The sepsis study is still continuing, but many of Shah鈥檚 research projects aren鈥檛. 鈥淲e were working on OB-GYN research that just had to stop,鈥� Shah says. 鈥淲omen are too scared to talk to us鈥� why should they care about our research right now?鈥�
Shah says one of the project team was a female university professor in Afghanistan who was collecting survey results. 鈥淪he鈥檚 now in hiding,鈥� says Shah. 鈥淭he Taliban aren鈥檛 OK with female workers in Kabul.鈥�
Research into women鈥檚 health in Afghanistan has taken the biggest hit this year, he says, but it was doing well before the Taliban.
at the University of Surrey, UK, who is originally from Afghanistan, recalls a recent phone call with a friend who is still in the country. 鈥淪he is a doctor at a medical university hospital,鈥� she says.
鈥淪he told me that they had separated male and female doctors and that she can鈥檛 attend morning briefing sessions about patients anymore,鈥� says Jafari. 鈥淪he was very upset and disappointed about the situation.鈥�
Medical training is one of the few subjects that appears to have continued relatively uninterrupted in Afghanistan. Jafari has friends who are still teaching medicine there.
鈥淭he Taliban initially put a curtain up between male and female students in class,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut then they didn鈥檛 think this was good enough so they changed it so that different genders have different shifts.鈥�
Afghans have more immediate concerns, however, says Jafari. The winter has led to power cuts and people tend to stay inside to avoid Taliban fighters.
鈥淓ducation is not a priority,鈥� she says. 鈥淧eople are just trying to survive.鈥�
She is similarly gloomy about the future of science in the country. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no hope really,鈥� says Jafari. 鈥淭he Taliban are a group of ignorant people who don鈥檛 understand science鈥� they don鈥檛 even understand the need for science.鈥�
The Ministry of Higher Education in Afghanistan didn鈥檛 respond to a request for comment.
*Not his real name
