Angered at the prospect of seeing her future disappear, the woman (whose name we have changed for her safety) staged an extraordinary solo protest in front of Kabul University, invoking words from the Quran.
On Sunday 25 December, Adela stood in front of the entrance holding up a board with a particularly powerful word written on it in Arabic – iqra, or ‘read’. Muslims believe this was the first word revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by God.
“God has given us the right to education. We need to be afraid of God, not the Taliban who want to take away our rights,” she told the BBC Afghan service.
“I knew that they treat the protesters very badly. They beat them, hit them, use weapons – they used Tasers and water cannon on them. But still I stood in front of them
Initially, Adela refused to go and stood her ground, but the paper board she was holding gradually caught the attention of the armed guards around her.
While clutching the placard, she started engaging a member of the Taliban.
“I asked him, ‘Can’t you read what I have written?’,” she said.
He said nothing, so Adela went further: “Can’t you read the word of God?”
Her placard was taken away and she was forced to leave after about 15 minutes of her lone demonstration.
While she was protesting, her elder sister had been sitting in a taxi taking pictures and recording a video of the protest.
“The taxi driver became very scared of the Taliban. He was pleading with my sister to stop filming. Fearing trouble, he asked her to leave the car,” Adela said