Fatima Amiri
Fatima Amiri is an Afghan student and advocate for women's education. She gained international recognition after surviving a deadly suicide bombing at the Kaaj educational center in Kabul on September 30, 2022. Despite being severely injured, she successfully took the national university entrance exam. After being prevented from attending university in Afghanistan due to the Taliban's ban on female higher education, she has faced further bureaucratic obstacles while seeking to continue her studies as a refugee in Turkey and Spain.
Biography
Early life
Amiri was born in Ghazni province, which is located next to Kabul. Education held great importance in her family, and this prompted them to relocate from Ghazni to Kabul a few years after her birth in order to provide her with better educational opportunities.She is the youngest of her five siblings, who include two sisters and three brothers.
Kaaj educational center attack
On September 30, 2022, a suicide bomber attacked the Kaaj educational center in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood of Kabul, a predominantly Hazara area. Students were at the center for a practice university exam. The explosion killed 54 people and injured 114, most of whom were young women and girls from the Hazara ethnic group, a minority frequently targeted by the Islamic State – Khorasan Province.Amiri, then 17, was in the classroom when the blast occurred. The explosion threw her several meters, and she suffered severe injuries, including the loss of her left eye, hearing loss in one ear, and a badly damaged jaw. Shrapnel was embedded in her face. Despite the trauma and her physical condition, she was determined to take the official Kankor exam.