Breaking one of its biggest promises after seizing power by force in August 2021, the Taliban canceled classes for high school girls on March 23, just hours after reopening on the first day of the new school year in Afghanistan. A spokesman for the fundamentalists said the teenagers will have to wait for a “second permit from the Islamic Emirate,” as the extremists’ government calls itself, without providing further details of the sudden decision.
Between tears and disappointment, hundreds of Afghan girls had to leave the classrooms this Wednesday, March 23, when they were preparing to start the new school year.
After months of waiting, the illusion was broken again. When the Taliban took power in August 2021, schools closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but only the youngest children were able to resume classes two months later.
There was a fear that the Taliban would close all formal education for girls, as they did during their first term in power, between 1996 and 2001. What was feared, was confirmed.
“We inform all girls’ high schools and those schools that have female students above the sixth level that they are out until further order,” the education ministry said.
Girls in Afghanistan crying after they were promised their schools would reopen only for the Taliban to lock them out again at the last minute. pic.twitter.com/SuoEpNLz5B
— Heather Barr (@heatherbarr1) March 23, 2022
The news caused confusion and anguish over the sudden change in measure, following repeated promises by the fundamentalists to the international community when they took power by force that they would change their hard-line policies towards girls and women, including education.
The sad students took their belongings and left. “I see my students crying and reluctant to leave classes… It is very painful to see your students cry,” said Palwasha, a teacher at Omra Khan Girls’ School in Kabul.
Taliban justifications
The fundamentalists have not clearly explained the reasons for the education closure that targets only adolescent girls or how long it will last. However, they indicated that access to the classrooms will be closed until a plan is drawn up in accordance with Islamic law.
The Ministry of Education maintained that reopening educational institutions was always an objective of the new rulers, but that they will not give in to international pressure.
“We are doing it as part of our responsibility to provide education and other facilities to our students,” said spokesman Aziz Ahmad Rayan.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban said girls could go back to school today.
After huge excitement, gathering books and uniforms and heading back to classes – secondary school girls were told to go home. Their schools were closing again.pic.twitter.com/UdX8vtz3rV
— Richard Chambers (@newschambers) March 23, 2022
The Taliban had insisted that they wanted to ensure that schools for adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19 were segregated and operated according to “Islamic principles”.
The Ministry of Education also justifies that it faces a shortage of teachers, many of whom fled among the thousands of people who left the country when the insurgents returned to take control of Afghanistan.
“We need thousands of teachers and to solve this problem we are trying to hire new teachers on a temporary basis,” added Rayan.
However, several nations and international organizations have offered to pay teachers.
“What will be our future?”
Even if adolescents manage to return to the classroom, there is still a chain of barriers for girls to resume their education normally. Many families are suspicious of possible Taliban violence and are reluctant to allow their daughters to leave their homes.
The last time the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, they banned female education, as well as most jobs for women.
The insurgents have imposed a series of restrictions on women, prohibiting them from accessing government jobs, controlling the clothes they wear and preventing them from traveling alone outside their cities. They have also arrested several women’s rights activists.
A few days after the chaotic departure of Western troops, led by the United States after 20 years in the country, most of the 250 judges that Afghanistan had reported that they had to hide or flee. One told Reuters how she was persecuted by men she, as her magistrate, had once imprisoned and who were released by the Taliban after her violent return.
In the face of myriad barriers, others see little point in educating girls.
“Those girls who finished their education ended up sitting at home and their future is uncertain,” said Heela Haya, 20, from Kandahar who decided to drop out of school.
It is common for Afghan students to miss parts of the school year as a result of poverty or conflict, with some continuing lessons into their late teens or early 20s.
In addition, the memories of the women and girls who received some of the worst harassment amid the strict Islamist rules they imposed are still alive. Among them, the prohibition to speak loudly in public, travel outside their homes without a blood relative, show any part of their body or lean out of balconies.
Many were flogged or stoned for breaking any of its rules, a daily horror that is now feared to spread again with the armed resurgence of the insurgents.
The United States and the UN condemn the closure of education for girls
The United Nations envoy for Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, called reports of the closure “disturbing.” “If it’s true, what could be the reason?” She questioned her.
The international community has made the right to education for all people on Afghan soil a sticking point in negotiations over economic aid and recognition of the new Taliban regime.
Hearing disturbing reports that female students above the sixth grade will not be invited back to school by the authorities, If true, what could possibly be the reason?
— Deborah Lyons (@DeborahLyonsUN) March 23, 2022
Human Rights Watch also raised the issue of the few avenues girls have to function after receiving an education.
“Why would you and your family make great sacrifices for you to study if you can never have the career you dreamed of?” said Sahar Fetrat, a researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“The UN in Afghanistan deplores today’s announcement by the Taliban that they are further extending their indefinite ban on female students above the sixth grade to return to school,” the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan said in a statement. country (UNAMA).
The US chargé d’affaires for that nation, Ian McCary, who currently resides in Qatar, said he was deeply concerned about the change in position.
“This is very disappointing and contradicts many assurances and statements by the Taliban,” he said.
The Taliban seek to run the country according to their interpretation of Islamic law, while at the same time accessing billions of dollars in desperately needed aid to stave off widespread poverty and hunger. However, for now they seem unwilling to change their long-standing positions that violate the most minimal standards of human rights.
With Reuters, AFP and AP
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