An Afghan woman who took a university entrance exam while taking care of her two-month-old baby has become the subject of a powerful photo capturing the scene.
Jahan Taab, 22, comes from a village in the province of Daikundi, Afghanistan, and took an exam to study at a private university in Kabul.
While she was taking the exam, her two-month-old baby started crying, and Taab sat on the ground to soothe him while continuing to write down her answers.
Powerful: Jahan Taab, 22, comes from a village in the province of Daikundi, Afghanistan. She was taking a university entrance exam when her baby started crying
Yahya Erfan, a lecturer who was monitoring the exam, told BuzzFeed News he found the mother ‘amazing’ and decided to take a picture of the moment.
He ended up capturing a few snaps of the scene and shared them on social media, describing the context in which they were taken.
One of the snaps, which shows Taab on the ground with her infant child on her lap, writing down her answers while caring for her baby, has attracted attention from people admiring the mother’s dedication, praising her for taking the exam even with a young child to tend to.
‘Twenty years from now, that child will see this photo in a better Afghanistan,’ one person wrote on Twitter.
Someone else deemed the picture ‘absolutely touching’, while another person called the mother a ‘legend’.
Focused: Taab sat on the ground to soothe him while continuing to write down her answers. Yahya Erfan, a lecturer who was monitoring the exam, took photos of the scene
Future: The mother passed her exam with 152 points and now wants to study social science, but she is worried she will not be able to afford the tuition fees
Other students, Erfan said, were ‘so sympathetic’ to her and didn’t seem to mind the baby’s cries.
Taab passed her exam with 152 points and now wants to study social science.
But the mother, who comes from a ‘poor family’ according to the lecturer, is worried she will not be able to afford the tuition fees, and had a conversation with school officials about funding after taking the exam.
She is also concerned that she will not be able to commute to school properly, because she lives in a remote village.
‘They don’t have roads for cars,’ Erfan said of the location.
The Afghan Youth Association, an organization based in the UK, has started a Go Fund Me to help the mother get her education.
‘The reason for the campaign is that nothing should stop this woman who have made such afford to take the exam with her two-month-old child,’ Shokryah Mohammadi, a member of the group, told CNN.
Through the online fundraiser, the group has raised more than $400 over the course of one day.