To Dust

---

Growing Up as an Afghan refugee in Pakistan, the shedding of blood was never far from Summia Torah.

From their Home - a single room in A House shared by four Families - they could not hear That the drones land far from Peshawar, in North-West Pakistan, where her family fled in the 1990s to escape the Taliban are on the rise.

"I was just living in this violence, but it was a given, so I couldn't do anything about it," Summia says. Sometimes there were bomb attacks, the once or twice a week. "At some point, people have stopped talking about it. It would happen, and everyone would move. "

But the living there was a privilege in comparison to Afghanistan , told the BBC. At least you got to go to school.

during a visit to Kabul in 2002, shortly after the US invasion, a girl, not much older described only able to attend school, by pretending to be a boy to be. Summia was six, but she remembers it clearly. You swore then That you take Learning seriously.

It would be hard to deny That she has. In October Summia, now 22, will graduate The First Rhodes scholar to hail from Afghanistan , One of the 102 students earn a place in the 2020 class of The World 's oldest post-scholarship.

her last Semester at Earlham College , a Liberal Arts university in the U.S. state of Indiana, their prospects, and she laughs with ease, the scholar fluent in the torrent of her words contrary to the traumas of The Journey That has taken her from refugee to Rhodes.

Ms Tora (in pink) with a part of your family during a visit to Kabul in 2002, " Everything can always be done,'

the so-called educated Afghan woman, is in itself a rarity. Female literacy in Afghanistan stands today, at 17%, according to Unesco.

Although the numbers in neighboring Pakistan, and they are still Poor - about 45% of the women in the Access to education and can read possible. In contrast, in your Home , "the people who could afford to go to school, were not able to go... because it still says no", Summia.

So it was unlikely That assets are growing in Pakistan, she says - an irony of the region's hardships and dangers. Thousands of U.S. drone operations in North-West Pakistan flown since 2004, as part of the so-called war against terror. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , the province with Peshawar, was a large theatre for the decades-long Pakistani fight against insurgents.

The year Summia left Peshawar, 2014, a militant bombing That killed 139 students in One of The World 's worst ever school massacre.

"It is this kind of tension, you have pressure," she says. "There's always this feeling of being insecure, because anything can happen at any Time . "

escape was to Learn. But as refugees, her family had limited rights. Her father could not have a driver's license and Access to An Education was too weak, so she had to look somewhere else.

"at the risk of their life,' Ms Torah in traditional Afghan clothing in their high-school graduation in New Mexico

A random online search led her to find a High School , the United World Colleges (UWC), the international students in their network of locations around The World .

to win The Experience of a place in The School , in New Mexico , was mired in violence. A Day after taking their entrance exam in Kabul in March 2014, The Hotel where it had taken place, was shot Taliban fighters.

The Persian New Year terrorist attack on the Serena Hotel That left Nine Dead , including The Head of the UWC selection Committee, Roshan Thomas. The Canadian doctor in The City was to help give The Exam .

Summia remembers how Dr. Thomas had urged, The Student candidates the opportunity of A Day "come back to Afghanistan and Do Something to change The Situation , because That is the point".

"she was the main reason why I applied. Because they risked their lives. Because she believed That students Like Me should be from countries such as Afghanistan , or refugees from Pakistan, the opportunity to get An Education . "

The load-a vexed inheritance

It is a view That is contrary to a legacy of imperialism, associated with the Rhodes, One of The World 's most famous and most competitive scholarships.

Equipped by Cecil Rhodes with his will in 1902, it was originally intended to encourage closer relations between the United States and the United Kingdom through the funding of post-graduate studies in Oxford. For most of its history, it was only men from the USA, Germany and the Commonwealth.

Rhodes supports saw the vision That "the whole world under British rule".

"He was an imperialist who believed in the white superiority and did not want to say That people of color or women to be part of the Rhodes scholarship," Summia. First of all, she wanted to apply.

she had a change of heart when it occurred to her That it would be hard to say no, she says, "but it is more difficult to accept it, take The Burden of The Legacy , and actually Do Something to change it - this is a real responsibility. "

"I realized, I should not run away, admitting the colonial history," she adds. "It's people like us That need to change are [the Rhodes legacy]. "

'A very modern Afghanistan '

Summia plans for a post-graduate course on refugee and migrant movement, and after That she says she is again fled to the Land of their family once.

The only situation in Afghanistan has became known as One of the empty streets and bombed-out buildings, but there is another in your head - you grew on your father, The Wars , the rent, the roads To Dust .

"I've always thought it was a valley, The Mountains and rivers and beautiful houses big beautiful houses with beautiful architecture," she says. "Dried fruits and nuts, fresh fruit on The Streets ... a very modern Afghanistan . "

It is for all of the Build as you.

Source of news: bbc.com