Shamim Ahmadi heard stories about girls who tried to go to school in Ghanzi, the city in central east Afghanistan where she grew-up.
"The Taliban in our area, they were putting acid on their faces," she said.
"These stories was scary for everyone and to my family as well. One day in the summer the school in my village was burned by Taliban and everyone was scared to go back."
Even at the best of times, when the Taliban fell and she reached the classroom, girls in school faced discouragement from the community.
"It was like, 'No, education is not important for a girl. Girl is for home. Girl is for kitchen. They should learn how to clean, how to cook,'" Ahmadi said. "But my father, I remember one thing that he told me … 'You can be a leader.'"
And now, she is.
After fleeing violence in her home country, being smuggled into Toronto and getting help from a local homeless shelter for youth, Ahmadi, 26, is now beginning her nursing residency with dreams of becoming a doctor.
"I have my status, I have my life in Canada, and now I'm going for my higher education and there is nothing to stop me."
Fleeing home
Ahmadi can clearly remember her first day of school. She'd been learning the alphabet at home, and through the mosque, when the Taliban fell.
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"I was with few other girls, the first girls going to school. I remember that day. I feel ... always when I close my eyes it feels a sunny day, a bright day, a very hopeful day."
Her parents, who'd never gone to school themselves, supported her, despite some in the community telling them they were wasting their time.
"It was a huge risk for me and my family that we took it, but there was two ways. One way that we could die forever, or one way that we could live our lives forever, and I think going to school made us to survive forever, and have a voice and have a life, a better life, a free life," Ahmadi said.
Despite their resolve, they still felt unsafe.
'As a doctor, I could help them'
They fled to Pakistan where, without status, her family found it hard to get work. At about 12-years-old, Ahmadi decided to help her father making coats and clothes, which left little time to study.
At the same time, Ahmadi's six-month-old brother became ill.
Her family took him to the doctor, and "they were in the line-up and he passed away, and that totally shocked me," she said.
"I felt that I should go for medical school, and if … I see a family that is struggling, as a doctor I could help them. And that became my dream."
To achieve it, she needed to return to Afghanistan for University, something her parents, at first, forbade because of the danger.
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