Azizullah Mowahidi, Zainab Hussaini and Murtaza Shafahi have aced their exams in their master’s degrees in Iran to be among the top scorers in the country. 

The three got their master’s degrees in history, geology and international relations respectively.  

Mowahidi, who came first in his history exam said Afghan students do face difficulties in Iran in terms of higher education. 

He said refugees rarely manage to get in to their chosen faculties in Iran. 

“My program, after graduation, is to return to Afghanistan to teach at a university and to carry out research and investigation in the field of history,” said Mowahid. 

Zainab Hussaini meanwhile came first in his class in geology at Kharazmi University of Tehran. 

Currently over 17,000 Afghan students are studying at higher education institutions in Iran. 

“Officials from Afghanistan’s ministry of higher education and the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Tehran have decided to include the names of the three top scorers to the A list for scholarships. These scholarships hold a lot of incentives, it provides free hostels and the Afghan government will pay the expenses,” said  Zia Sahil, a spokesman for the ministry of higher education.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that Afghan refugees are allowed to get an education at Iranian institutions. However some Afghan students say that they still face restrictions when trying to get accepted to these institutions.