Shukria got a First! In PPE from Goldsmiths. It's incredible! I'm going to have to make a thread to explain how incredible. Here is a poem Shukria wrote 8 years ago, when she had been in the UK 6 months. And here she is last year, at the UN.

Shukria came from a tiny village in Afghanistan. She went to a very simple village school. As she explains in this poem, she is Hazara, and came to the UK to escape the Taliban.

Shukria brought her Persian/Farsi heritage to school, and the poems her mother taught her. She began making English versions of the poet Rumi - great ones.

After her A Levels, Shukria had an extra year at school funded by @PoetryDayUK , mentoring younger students in poetry. I love this photo of her with Halema, also from Afghanistan, but Pashtoo speaking.

And then she got a Sanctuary Scholarship to Goldsmiths! https://www.unhcr.org/uk/news/stories/2018/5/5b0ea9f94/poetry-helps-afghan-girl-find-her-path-in-england.html

And now, in case anyone doubts the value of a sanctuary scholarship, she has got a First How lucky are we to have her in this country? Her latest poem reflects on her journey.

So that's made my day/week/month. Another fact I especially love is that Shukria's poems from England, Poems from a School are now set texts in girls' schools in Pakistan.