A single act of kindness by a Red Cross nurse to eight year old Manizha Khan would change the course of her life forever – that one action would save her from Taliban death threats twenty years later and lead her on her journey to Ireland.

Growing up in Pakistan as a refugee, studying dentistry in China and returning to Afghanistan as a highly educated woman during the country’s brief years of liberation, Manizha was bound to be a target for the Taliban when the Americans pulled out.

Working as Dean of a University Dental School, as the Taliban rolled into Herat and shots fired outside, she frantically printed student records – so they could prove they had studied, if the chance ever came again to resume education.

"I was in the university because the students were very scared that if university archive burns, then all their records will be destroyed.

“We were printing records for the students and signing and stamping them.

“My husband called, and he said the Taliban have entered the city, stop what you are doing, I'm coming to pick you up, just leave...

“Some people started laughing and they're like, well done now, all you women, you will be going back home. You enjoyed freedom for 20 years. Now again, back home, sit in your home, raise children...These things were coming from the people who are working with us, people we called brothers, people we called colleagues."

Read Manizha Khan’s article in this week’s Irish Examiner

Ireland welcomed me, but new rules mean my path is impossible to follow

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