'If women are not allowed to work, how can we go back?'

"I don't mind wearing a burqa, but preventing women from accepting a job is atrocious,'' says an Afghan refugee woman who just completed a job-oriented course in New Delhi.

''I left my country five years back just because I don't want my children to suffer,'' says Turpaki, who worked with an airliner before she left Afghanistan.

When she decided to go to India, she did not know what problems a refugee could face. But she was determined to to give her three children a good future.

Initially, like many other Afghan refugees in India, she used to get financial assistance from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. But when the UNHCR funds dried up, she found that finding work was difficult. Then she decided to join a UNHCR job-oriented course, conducted by the Young Men’s Christian Association. Now armed with a certificate on beauty culture, she hopes to land a job soon.

UNHCR Chief of Mission in India Irene Khan distributed certificates to 50-odd students who completed courses like beauty culture, tailoring and motor mechanics on Thursday.

Khan says financial assistance from UNHCR is only for a fixed time. It is important to make the refugee women self-reliant so that they can stand on their own, she said.

Nineteen-year-old Meher, clad in a T-shirt and jeans, is sympathetic towards the plight of girls of her age forced to wear a burqa back home. ''I don't know what will happen to me, if I go to Afghanistan wearing the same dress. Here in India, I can wear anything. I love that freedom,'' she says, referring to strong Islamic laws implemented by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Women and girls bore the brunt of new restrictions, including a ban on employment and education. They were ordered to remain at home or wear the tent-like burqa in public.

Meher had to discontinue the studies when her family decided to flee Afghanistan in the early 1990s. She only studied up to the sixth standard, but hopes the certificate in beauty culture she now holds can get her a job.

Her brother had gone to Afghanistan to visit relatives a few days before the Taliban militia took control of Kabul. ''We are eagerly waiting for his letter. But so far, we have no information about him.''

Many other girls complain they receive no letters from relatives in Afghanistan and hope international agencies can give them some news of the fate of their relatives.

Most of the girls who completed the course, came to India in the early 1990s with their parents when the civil war forced them to leave. ''We want to go back… But if women are not allowed to work and study and restrictions are placed on our freedom, how can we go back,'' asks one girl in her teens.

Jagjit Kaur, who left her country six years back, says she will return only after the situation improves.

Zakia, who got a certificate in cutting and tailoring, is looking for a job so that her family will not starve. ''But who will stand guarantee for a refugee,'' asks another girl.

There are about 90,000 Afghan refugees in India, more than 50 per cent of them women.