Coming from a poor family with limited means, studying overseas on a scholarship was my only way out. I was lucky to get an opportunity to study at a top university in India. I just completed my Masters in Computer Applications (MCA) in New Delhi.

I was supposed to board a flight back home in end-August but now the situation back home is such that my life is at risk. I cannot go back even though I am worried sick about my mother, sister and brothers. Nor can any other Afghan student here in India on a student visa. When our visas expire, we will eventually be made to return by Indian authorities to our homeland, where the Taliban has seized power.

My mother has begged me not to return as the Taliban is circling our neighbhourhood. This is a matter of life and death. Sign my petition to support Afghan students currently in India.

By now, everyone has seen the videos from Hamid Karzai airport where crowds were desperately trying to hang off airplanes to flee my country. That is how terrifying things are. If only it was all just a movie..

Therefore, I am appealing to the Government of India and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) on behalf of all my Afghan brothers and sisters who are in this country

to extend our student visas so that we can legally stay on in India and stay safe,
To extend the scholarship and stipend to those in India on ICCR fellowship