Zahra Hussaini didn’t give up on her dream of becoming a doctor when a car bomb exploded outside a school near her home in Kabul in 2021, killing dozens of schoolgirls and sparking fears that her classrooms might be next.

       She didn’t give up months later, when the Taliban took over Afghanistan, nor when the regime banned female students from attending universities in late 2022, months before she was set to complete her first year of medical school.