I had always dreamed of going to university. I saw it as a way not just to make my own life better, but also to be able to do something for other people and my country.
However, living at home in Kabul with my retired dad and an elder brother who was at university, I had to work as an English teacher to put food on the table.
Then the Taliban came. When I had been in Pakistan for two months, a friend in Britain suggested I should apply to a UK university.
Neither of us thought it would work as the process was long and complicated – and I’d be one of thousands applying for very few positions.