An empty classroom in the Sharia Faculty at the University of Kabul, shortly after the Taliban took control. | Image: Keystone/Laif/Andy Spyra

“The current government has had a completely destructive effect on research”, says Shohra Qaderi. She’s from Afghanistan but she’s currently studying clinical science and public health at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran. According to the journal Nature, Afghanistan’s universities – some 40 of them public, 120 private – are officially open. But it’s almost impossible for researchers to do their work. International aid monies have stopped flowing, many students have fled, staff from minorities are being fired, and no one is getting paid. Despite efforts by the international research community, only a small number of Afghan researchers are able to carry on their research outside the country. “We are just wasting our time here”, says one researcher who is still in the country and prefers to remain anonymous.