Afghanistan woman builds secret home 'lab', beats Taliban ban; bags IIT-Madras degree

It is also said that Behishta is one among those students who cleared their post-graduation programme from one of India's top institutes this year. She also revealed her achievements where only a few women can even imagine in her country today. She also lashed out at the regressive ideas of the fundamentalist regime.

Team Newsable

First Published May 27, 2023, 2:16 PM IST | Last Updated May 27, 2023, 2:16 PM IST

Behishta Khairuddin studied chemical engineering on a computer with a spotty wi-fi connection for two years while the Taliban reclaimed its control in Afghanistan and forbade women from attending high school and universities, all while conducting lab experiments in secret at home using borrowed beakers and her sister's microwave oven.

It is reportedly said that the 26-year-old had enrolled in IIT-Madras for a master's in chemical engineering during the tumultuous Taliban takeover of 2021. She was stuck in her province in northern Afghanistan. Isolated and confined to her home, she wrote and cleared all her semesters remotely, with IIT-Madras extending a long helping hand to the gifted Afghani woman whose name means 'paradise' in Persian.

In an interview with TOI, Behishta said, "I don't feel any regret. If you stop me, I will find another way. I feel sorry for you (Taliban) because you have the power, you have everything, but you are not using that. It's you who should be sorry, not me."

Behishta also revealed that she almost missed admission in IIT after clearing the interview as the diplomatic fallout when the Taliban took control of her country.

"After that, I did not receive any response from ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations, which provided scholarships to students from Afghanistan). My account on the portal was deactivated. I reached out to the global engagement of IIT-Madras. Professor Raghu (Raghunathan Rengasamy) was there, and I emailed that I have cleared the interview and had these issues. They gave me a scholarship and I started my studies a month later," she said.

"I was born in an educated and supportive family. My father is a social science graduate and my mother a doctor. My older sister is an IIT PhD student, who too is stuck in Afghanistan. My second sister studied law, and my brother studied social science. I'm the fifth child," Behishta said.

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