Girls not yet allowed in school in Afghanistan

Kabul, Afghanistan: Taliban has not yet allowed girls from senior section attend school. Parents of such students are very worried and the future of these girls is uncertain as there is no assurity of when schools will be open for girls.

Binazir Haqjo, a student in eleventh grade, hopes the government will allow girls to continue education.

Binazir Haqjo said, “I have not left my home since the government changed. I think all our efforts in the field of learning are being wasted. We had gone to school despite economic and security challenges. Now, we are wasting all this.”
Samira, a student said, ” I want to study and I wish to become a judge. If the Taliban keep closing my school, how can I become a judge?”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Information and Culture said the caretaker government in cooperation with some religious scholars is working on a plan to open schools for girls.

“The plan will not take a long time, it will be finalised soon. Twenty years ago was different from now. We had economic problems. The country was destroyed and we needed to rebuild it,” said Zabihullah Mujahid, Deputy Minister of Culture and Information.

At the same time, a number of schoolteachers fear that the Taliban’s plan may take years, and girls will remain out of school in the meantime.

“In fact, they (Taliban) don’t want women to study and become literate. They want to take Afghanistan twenty years back,” said Shamsia, a teacher.

“The ideas have not changed. As a woman, I don’t believe in their promises. During the first reign, they promised this and never did it, said Suhaila Sadat, a women’s rights activist.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) said that closing Afghan girls’ schools violates the fundamental right to education.

Both UNESCO and UNICEF said that Afghanistan has made significant gains in education, especially in girls’ education, and they should be preserved.