Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, thousands of Afghan families have fled to neighboring Pakistan.
Some escaped their homeland so that their daughters could continue their education, following the Taliban's ban on women attending university and teenage girls from going to school.
Among them was Bibi Gul, who moved to Pakistan with her teenage daughter. A 10th grader, her daughter was seeking to graduate from high school. But both were recently deported by the Pakistani authorities.
Last month, Pakistan ordered 1.7 million undocumented Afghans to leave the South Asian country by November 1. The measure has spurred over 300,000 people to return to Afghanistan and has been followed up by police roundups and forced deportations.
Afghan children receive bread from a local charity at a makeshift camp upon their arrival from Pakistan, near the Torkham border crossing in Nangarhar Province on November 12.
Afghan girls and women who return to their homeland face a grim future. The Taliban has severely curtailed female education and women's right to work. The extremist group has also imposed restrictions on women's appearances and freedom of movement.
"We fled Afghanistan because my daughter was deprived of an education," Gul told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi as she crossed Chaman, one of two key border crossings between Afghanistan and Pakistan. "Now that we have returned, she must be able to continue her studies."
But there are few signs that the Taliban will reverse its restrictions on female education in Afghanistan, where rights groups have accused the hard-line group of trying to erase women from public life and imprison them in their homes.
Afghan women and girls who still remain in Pakistan live in constant fear of being forcibly expelled to Afghanistan, where they say they have no future.
Mina Aslami, an 11th grader, moved with her family to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, last year. She is intent on graduating from high school, although she fears her education will be cut short.
SEE ALSO: Former Afghan Soldiers Fear Forced Return To Taliban-Ruled Homeland"If I return, I will just sit at home," Aslami told Radio Azadi. "There are no schools or education courses [for teenage girls]. Even going out alone is prohibited, and I won't be free."
Masumah Ahmadi studies biotechnology at a university in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore. The fourth-year student said she will "endure the same stress, anxiety, and despair as the girls living in Afghanistan are experiencing" if she is forced to return to her homeland.
An estimated 700,000 Afghans, most of them undocumented, have sought refuge in Pakistan since the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.
They joined around 3 million Afghans who have moved to Pakistan over the past four decades of war, poverty, and political upheaval in Afghanistan.
SEE ALSO: The Azadi Briefing: Taliban, Pakistan In War Of Words Over Mass Expulsion Of Afghan RefugeesAfter initially targeting Afghans living "illegally" in Pakistan, Islamabad has said it will begin deporting the millions of Afghans living legally in the country.
Human rights groups have urged Islamabad to halt its mass deportations, warning it will endanger Afghan refugees, particularly women and girls.
Afghanistan is grappling with a devastating economic and humanitarian crisis as well as what rights groups have called a deepening "human rights crisis."
"If the Pakistani government doesn't halt the deportations immediately, it will be denying thousands of at-risk Afghans, especially women and girls, access to safety, education, and livelihood," Livia Saccardi of Amnesty International said in a November 10 statement.
Asia moved to Pakistan so that her children could have a better future. But they were recently deported, leaving her facing an uncertain future.
"We are now facing many economic problems and our children struggle with educational challenges," she told Radio Azadi.