{"id":11603,"date":"2022-06-20T17:08:15","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T21:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.porticomagazine.ca\/?p=11603"},"modified":"2022-06-24T14:33:28","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T18:33:28","slug":"research-assistant-refugee-activist-working-to-improve-life-in-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2022\/06\/research-assistant-refugee-activist-working-to-improve-life-in-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Assistant, Refugee Activist Working to Improve Life in Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Named Among BBC\u2019s Top 100 Women for Efforts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nasrin Husseini helps settle refugees fleeing Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in fall 2021, Nasrin Husseini watched in despair as change and progress in her native country unraveled, especially for girls and women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was in shock, I was distressed,\u201d she says. Husseini, a University of Guelph grad, knows first-hand how it feels to live amid threats from the Taliban and to be barred from getting an education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She fled Afghanistan in 2010 when it became unsafe for her to continue working as a veterinarian. Husseini eventually made her way to U of G, earning an M.Sc. in immunology in 2020. She was among the first graduate students to receive the $50,000 Arrell Food Institute scholarship. Now a research assistant in U of G\u2019s Department of Pathobiology, she is helping transform Canada\u2019s beef industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the resurgence of the Taliban has turned her attention to her homeland, where she fears for the future of women, girls and minorities in Afghanistan. She wants to make a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now, because of the crisis that has happened in Afghanistan, I didn\u2019t think for a second\u2014I just started helping and working for Afghan refugees,\u201d she says. Husseini volunteers with Canadian Hazara Humanitarian Services, a non profit organization. She helped the group approach Danby Products Ltd. in Guelph and get the company\u2019s support to settle Hazara refugees in the city Earlier in Afghanistan, she advocated for the rights of women, girls and minorities, and taught English and computer skills to women. As an Afghan veterinarian, she helped farmers raise healthier animals to increase productivity and reduce treatment costs. She says Taliban threats led her at times to cease teaching or to remove her business sign from the door. Her courageous efforts were recognized recently when she was named to the prestigious BBC 100 Women list for 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BBC 100 Women includes climate activists and grassroots leaders, international CEOs and \u201cmega-stars\u201d playing their part to \u201creinvent our society, our culture and our world after the global pandemic has forced so many of us to reassess the way we live.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Husseini was among 50 exceptional Afghan women on this year\u2019s list, which highlighted the struggles of Afghan women and girls under renewed Taliban rule. \u201cI admire those Afghan women who are working from inside Afghanistan,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me to be considered on the same list with them is a great honour. They are putting their lives in danger, and I am just working from outside the country.\u201d Husseini was the first woman to graduate from Kabul University\u2019s veterinary medicine program, finishing at the top of her class in 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says after the collapse of the Taliban rule in 2001, girls and women experienced some improvements in their quality of life\u2014albeit slowly and limited\u2014such as being allowed to go to school and work.\u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy. We had to work very hard, but it felt so good,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI got into veterinary school in Afghanistan when it was a huge deal for a girl to be a veterinarian.\u201d Eventually, discrimination forced Husseini to leave Afghanistan\u2014for the second time. As a child, she had moved with her family to Iran to escape the ongoing war. Only when the family returned to Afghanistan could she attend post-secondary education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Husseini is Hazara, which is one of Afghanistan\u2019s largest ethnic minorities, accounting for up to 20 per cent of the country\u2019s 30 million inhabitants. Husseini says the Taliban has a long history of violence and oppression toward the Hazara.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Nasrin Husseini received an Arrell Food Institute award at U of G.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

Since its return to power in 2021, conditions for the group and for women and girls in general have rapidly worsened, she says. Many people in the country have fled or gone into hiding. In late March, the Taliban closed girls\u2019 high schools after having reopened them almost seven months earlier. Husseini said she feels \u201cso blessed, so happy\u201d to be working at U of G and living in nearby Kitchener. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFinally, I am in a safe place that I can call home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love my work. I love working with animals,\u201d she says. \u201cBut now my main concern is for the women and girls of my country and for the Hazara. Everyone is so upset, so afraid. Many are now in hiding. They are really in danger.\u201d Husseini sees an opportunity for the Canadian government to assist Afghan refugees currently living in Iran\u2014many of them academics with graduate degrees\u2014to come to Canada, as well as minorities that fled Afghanistan and are now in a second country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She plans to continue her advocacy. \u201cWith this BBC recognition, I think the weight is heavier on my shoulders, and I have to do more. People are counting on me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Named Among BBC\u2019s Top 100 Women for Efforts Nasrin Husseini helps settle refugees fleeing Afghanistan. When the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in fall 2021, Nasrin Husseini watched in despair as change and progress in her native country unraveled, especially for girls and women. \u201cI was in shock, I was distressed,\u201d she says. Husseini,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":11604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nResearch Assistant, Refugee Activist Working to Improve Life in Afghanistan -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2022\/06\/research-assistant-refugee-activist-working-to-improve-life-in-afghanistan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Research Assistant, Refugee Activist Working to Improve Life in Afghanistan -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Named Among BBC\u2019s Top 100 Women for Efforts Nasrin Husseini helps settle refugees fleeing Afghanistan. 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