Afghan women students in Oman face expulsion after Trump’s USAID freeze

More than 80 Afghan women fled the Taliban to follow up on higher education in Amman now deporting an imminent to Afghanistan, following the freezing of the Trump administration on external aid programs.

Funded by the USAID Agency (USAID), their granting was suddenly terminated after the freezing of President Donald Trump’s financing when he returned to his post in January.

“It was crushed,” one of the students told the BBC. “Everyone was shocked and crying. We were told that we will be brought back within two weeks.”

Since the restoration of power nearly four years ago, the Taliban have imposed Drakonia’s restrictions on women, including their ban from universities.

American aid has been able to finance thousands of Afghan women to study abroad or continue education online, but many of these programs are now suspended.

The freezing of aid in the Trump administration has faced legal road barriers, but thousands of humanitarian programs have been completed around the world or were thrown into danger, as the White House seeks to reduce billions of government spending.

Students in Amman say that preparations are already underway to return them to Afghanistan, and appeal to the international community to “intervene urgently.”

The British Broadcasting Corporation witnessed emails sent to 82 students to inform them that scholarships had “stopped” due to the end of the program and the United States Agency for International Development.

Email messages – which admits that the news is “very disappointing and anxious” – indicates travel arrangements to Afghanistan, which caused students to warn.

One of them told the BBC: “We need immediate protection, financial assistance and resettlement of safe opportunities where we can continue our education,” one of them told BBC.

The USAID website’s media communication page remains a non -connection mode. BBC called the US State Department to comment.

Afghan women, who are now facing a forced return from Amman, were following graduate courses and graduate studies in the framework of the Women’s Scholarships (WSE), a program of the US International Development Agency that started in 2018.

She has provided scholarships for Afghan women to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), which are banned with women by the Taliban.

A little more than a week ago, the students were told to finish their grants.

Another student told the BBC: “It seems as if everything has been taken away from me.” “It was the worst moment. I’m at extreme pressure now.”

These women, most of them in their twenties, are qualified for scholarships in 2021 before the Taliban took over to Afghanistan. Many continued their studies at Afghan universities until December 2022, when the Taliban banned higher education for women.

After 18 months in birds, they said they fled to Pakistan last September.

Then the American Agency for International Development facilitated its visas to Amman, where they arrived between October and November 2024.

“If we are returned, we will face serious consequences. This means losing all our dreams,” Talib said. “We will not be able to study and our families may force us to marry. Many of us can also be in personal danger because of our previous affiliations and activities.”

The Taliban have taken to behind women protests against education and work, as many activists were beaten, detention and threatened.

Women in Afghanistan describe themselves as “dead bodies roaming” under the regime’s brutal policies.

The Taliban government says it is trying to resolve the issue of women’s education, but also defended the dictates of its supreme leader, saying it was “according to Islamic conditions.”

Talib said: “Afghanistan suffers from the racist separation system between the sexes, as women have been systematically excluded from basic rights, including education,” Talib said.

She and her friends in Amman managed to escape this fate, as the scholarships were supposed to finance their education until 2028.

“When we came here, our care told us not to return to Afghanistan until 2028 on vacations or visit our families because they are not safe for us. Now they tell us to go.”

Last month, the White House journalist, Anna Kelly, blamed the situation for Afghan women in the withdrawal of the US military from the country under the Democrats, where the Washington Post told: “Afghan women suffer because the catastrophic withdrawal of Joe Biden allowed Taliban to impose legal policies from nervous law.”

The decision to reduce US aid financing came under the Trump administration, and was implemented by the Ministry of Governmental efficiency in Elon Musk.

These women face a dark future, urgently looking for a lifeline before the time ran out.

Additional reports by Aakriti Thapar