Afghanistan: Woman protests Taliban's education ban with single word of God

"I did not feel any fear because I believed that my demand is just," said a defiant 18-year-old Afghan woman whose ambition to get a university degree has been frustrated by the Taliban's ban on women in higher education.

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.