Mah, 22, fled Afghanistan when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. #googlenews #google #worldnews
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00:00For many people in the UK this week, school has started again.
00:04But for women and girls in Afghanistan, there is still a ban from secondary school classrooms
00:10and much of public life by the Taliban.
00:13Ma, 22, fled from the country in August 2021 when the group swept into the capital Kabul.
00:20She is now getting an education in the UK,
00:23starting a GCSE in English this week and she tells BBC Newsbeat,
00:28I am happy for myself. I am safe, I have freedom, I am free,
00:33but at the same time, my friends in Afghanistan can't do anything," she adds.
00:39In the three years since the Taliban took control, restrictions on women's lives have increased.
00:45Women and girls over 12 are banned from schools
00:48and prevented from sitting most university entrance exams.
00:52There are also restrictions in the work they can do, with beauty salons being closed,
00:58as well as being not being able to go to parks, gyms and sport clubs.
01:03I don't put my picture on WhatsApp or Instagram stories when I'm happy,
01:07when I go out with friends or when I'm in college," Ma says.
01:11Because I don't want my friends back home to feel like,
01:15oh she's in the UK now, she has freedom.
01:18Ma, who is in Cardiff, hopes a GCSE in English is the start to eventually becoming a midwife in
01:25Wales.