Dreams on hold: Afghan girls, women desperate to get back to class

Hawa, 20, a third-year Russian literature student at the Burhanuddin Rabbani University (which was renamed by the Taliban to Kabul Education University), reads a book with her sister on a windowsill at their home in Kabul, Afghanistan, October 23, 2021. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

KABUL (Reuters) - To fill her days and keep her mind occupied, university student Hawa sits by the window in her Kabul home and pores over a book.

Like hundreds of thousands of other Afghan girls and young women, the 20-year-old Russian literature undergraduate has not been allowed to return to her studies since the Taliban seized power in mid-August.