Iran-e-Sagheer

Many Kashmiri students choose to study in Iran due to a combination of affordability and cultural familiarity. A degree in medicine is the most preferred option

- Ishfaq Naseem

WHEN his daughter completed her Class 12 exams four years ago, Feroze Ali began weighing options for a medical degree that wouldn't break the bank. Iran emerged as a practical choice. The MBBS course there would cost the family about Rs 30 lakh, a fraction of what most private colleges in India charge. The country's cultural setting, too, felt familiar enough for the conservative Kashmiri Muslim household. Nazima Feroze, now 23 and in her final year at Iran University of Medical Sciences, said studying in Tehran offered both academic comfort and a cultural rhythm that closely mirrored home. Speaking to us at her family's home in Chadoora, Central Kashmir, soon after her sudden return home in the wake of the Israel-Iran conflict, she said religious practices like the hijab were naturally woven into everyday life.

“There is a strict rule to observe hijab in Iran, which is part of Islamic culture. People in Iran wear religion on their sleeves; they seemed to be defiant in the face of attacks on their country,” said Nazima, as her father, in the background, kept on talking to someone over the phone, smirking as he shared the news of the ceasefire between Israel and Iran.

Nazima, who is in the final year of her MBBS at Iran University of Medical Sciences, was among the second batch of students evacuated from Iran to Kashmir. Her studies had been progressing well before the war between Israel and Iran, which began with strikes by both countries on each other’s territory on June 13. A ceasefire is now in place between the two nations, for now.