FARANAZ Kargar feels safe and happy at college in England. Back in Afghanistan she was forced to give up her law studies after her life was threatened.

Mrs Kargar, who fled to England three years ago with her husband Omar and their two sons Osman and Kias, is now studying English and computing at Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College. The college has 15,000 students and 620 of these are Afghan refugees.

College principal John Stone said: “We have a lot of Afghan refugees here because we are close to the airport and have strong links with Afghan cultural associations. The college is very global and we have people here from more than 50 countries speaking over 100 languages.

“The TES campaign to encourage colleges and schools to raise funds to get adults and children back into education in Afghanistan is really important and something we would like to support.”

Mrs Kargar is one of the lucky few who can get the education here that she was denied back home. Back in Afghanistan there are thousands like her desperate to learn.

The 28-year-old said: “I wasn’t allowed to finish as there was a war and the Taliban said they wouldn’t allow women to study. When I was in my country I saw what they did to the ladies who studied - they killed one lady with a knife and so I stopped my studies.”

The 28-year-old was forced to stay at home and had to wear a burqa when she went outside. Largely confined indoors, Mrs Kargar taught herself English and gave English, maths and Dari lessons to children in the neighbourhood.

Smartly dressed in a grey suit, she said: “I hated covering myself up. I am very happy here, I like studying. After my English has improved I would like to do hairdressing and beauty.

“We felt very sad when the Taliban said women shouldn’t be educated. It was very depressing. In the Eighties and early Nineties in Afghanistan there was freedom for women. The most important thing is education. If a person is not educated, they are like an animal - they know nothing.”

In England, she gave birth to a third son who died of a genetic disease when he was 10 months old. A counsellor at the college has helped her come to terms with the pain and loss she suffered.

“The counsellor has really helped me. Everyone at the college has been really kind to me,” she said.

Her husband Omar, 48, who had a successful career in Kabul as a history and sociology university lecturer, paid an agent US$22,000 for his family to escape. He is now studying English and computing at college with his wife.

Mr Kargar said: “The Taliban wanted to arrest me because I have a PhD and I was head of the Social Sciences department. When we knew they wanted to kill us we got an agent to get us out.

When Mr Kargar was teaching in Kabul in the early Nineties, 70 per cent of the university students were women. “None of them had to be covered up and wear burqas. They wore Western clothes and looked just like women in Europe.

“People at the university looked just like people at college here. Now these women still can’t go on to the streets without their burqas. The women need a law to protect them.”

Mr Kargar, who can speak Pushto, Dari, Russian and English, wants to improve his English and then continue his research in history and sociology.

He said: “I either want to teach in a college or work as a translator. I loved my job back in Kabul and I would like to do something like that here.”

Mr Kargar’s brother, who also lived in Kabul, was arrested and he has had no news of him since. The couple are very concerned about Afghanistan’s interim rulers and believe it is still very much a lawless state.

Mr Kargar said: “Nothing will change until we get rid of all those guns that are on the streets. Part of the problem is that a lot of these rulers can’t even read or write. They come from the mountains. I watch the news and it looks terrible there - the people haven’t even got anything to eat.”

Another student at the London college, Mahammed Omar Omari, 49, is also studying English. He paid an agent US$30,000 to flee to the UK with his wife and three children.

“I like it here at the college,” he said. “We meet other people from Afghanistan and people from all over the world. It is very nice. My wife is on the waiting list to come here as well.

“It was very difficult for me back in Afghanistan. I was an army officer and after 1992, the Taliban did not allow me to continue my job. It was very bad for me and my family. They wanted to arrest or kill me.

“If you had money the Taliban would take it. If you had a pretty daughter and the Taliban wanted her, they would take her.

“At the moment everyone has guns and no one feels safe. In Afghanistan the first problem is the gun. If people took the guns away, it would get better. In my opinion it will take five to 10 years for the country to get back to normal.”