She gives the girls a voice

FULDA: Nahid Rauf wants to give women and girls from her home country a voice. The student on the Global Health Bachelor's degree programme at Fulda University of Applied Sciences comes from Afghanistan. As part of a course project, she has now initiated a multimedia exhibition that highlights the precarious living conditions of young Afghan women. "People often only see the ban on education, but as an Afghan woman, I can see what is really behind it." On Wednesday, 28 January, Nahid Rauf will show us what's behind it all. Visitors can view the results of her work from 5 to 7 p.m. on the university campus, Building 10, Room 001.

Nahid Rauf grew up in Herat - a city in Afghanistan that is considered the centre of the Persian-Muslim cultural world. "I grew up in a family that supported me to live the life I wanted despite the constant barriers and challenges for girls in Afghanistan. And so I loved living in Afghanistan. Education was always a core value in our family, and as a family with three daughters, the ban on education for girls affected us deeply," the student reports. She initially studied medicine and worked in a hospital. "What I experienced there were outstanding doctors, talented nurses, but also wrong guidelines and wasted potential. That was the moment I realised that I didn't just want to treat patients - I wanted to make a change in the system," says Nahid Rauf.

In her fifth academic year, the ban on education for Afghan girls was finally imposed: "For three and a half years, I tried everything to continue my training, but the barriers were countless. I decided to choose a program taught in English that aligned with my background in medicine and health. I decided to study Global Health." The study programme at the Department of Health Science enabled Nahid Rauf to look at health beyond the hospital walls - to understand how politics, business and society shape people's access to care: "I am interested in improving health systems and supporting equity."

She continues to maintain contacts in her home country
It is precisely this missing justice that she is now addressing in her seminar project. "I lived in Afghanistan until recently, and I've been active in education since high school. I taught English, Turkish and biology and worked as a student assistant. After joining the medical faculty, I was chosen to be the deputy manager of the Afghanistan Medical Students Association, which allowed me to build a large network. Now I am contacting the girls who are currently still in Afghanistan via my existing contacts and my Instagram page so that I can present their fates here in the exhibition," reports the Fulda student.

Her now completed project includes a photo exhibition entitled "Blue as the Sky". The photographs show the blue burqa, which is currently being enforced on women by the Taliban, Nahid Rauf reports: "Although many people do not wear it as a form of protest, it has become a powerful symbol of imposed silence. The photographs aim to reveal the hidden talents that lie beneath the blue burqa. All the photos were taken by a young woman currently living in Afghanistan. She was studying medicine, but was forced to stop her training due to the ban on training girls."

The second part of her project corresponds to a writing exhibition called "A Generation on Hold". The aim is to raise awareness in society about the missing education of Afghan girls and to address the dreams, identities and future prospects of those girls. Nahid Rauf reads a story from her collection in English, accompanied by a video projection: "I didn't write down the life story of a single person, instead I took pieces from the lives of many women I met and created a fictional character from them. Overall, the story I read briefly touches on life before the Taliban, the fall of Afghanistan, migration and the loss of identity," Nahid Rauf further summarises.

Messages to the girls in Afghanistan
Visitors can also leave little notes - messages to the girls and women affected. The student plans to compile these into a poem and send it to the Afghan women. "The exhibition may not change the lives of Afghan girls in a practical sense, but the process of sharing their writings and knowing that their voices and names are being heard at a university gives them hope. It may only be a temporary hope, but sometimes that is exactly what is needed: a rope to hold on to. That's what I needed years ago too. I want to give it to the girls," says Nahid Rauf, describing her motivation for this extraordinary work. "I don't think the phrase 'I understand' should be used lightly. But this topic is important to me because I really understand."

IMPORTANT: Please register for the course by Monday, 26 January at hs-fulda.de/newsroom/termine/details/blue-as-the-sky-17689/show

About Fulda University of Applied Sciences
There are 9500 students at Fulda University of Applied Sciences. More than 170 professors teach and conduct research in eight departments. Fulda University of Applied Sciences is one of the most research-intensive universities of applied sciences in Germany. There are more than 60 study programmes to choose from at Fulda University of Applied Sciences - including offers that are unique in Germany. In addition to Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes in attendance and full-time, integrated training programmes, part-time and dual study programmes are also offered. In 2016, Fulda University of Applied Sciences became the first university of applied sciences in Germany to be awarded doctoral degrees independently. The university's internationalisation strategy is reinforced by its membership of the European University Alliance E³UDRES².