Afghanistan | 'No Hope' For Girls Eager About Going Back To Schools Amid Taliban Rule: Report

The new Islamist rulers in Afghanistan earlier on September 18 ordered male teachers and boys aged 13 and over back to secondary schools.

Representative Photo: Getty Images

Kabul: With the Taliban taking control of Afghanistan yet again after 20 years, the dreams of several teenage girls in the war-ravaged nation took a hit as majority of them continue to be barred from attending secondary school.

The new Islamist rulers in Afghanistan earlier on September 18 ordered male teachers and boys aged 13 and over back to secondary schools.

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There was, however, no mention of women teachers or girl pupils.

The Taliban later said the older girls can return to secondary schools, which were already mostly split by gender, but only once security and stricter segregation under their interpretation of Islamic law could be ensured, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The girls are now, as per reports, going back to a few high schools where the Taliban promoted the return with a stage-managed rally.

Earlier on Friday, a senior United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) executive said a Taliban leader told the UN children’s body that a framework to allow all girls to go to secondary school will be announced soon, AFP reported.

Meanwhile, the primary schools have reopened for all children and women can go to private universities. There are, though, tough restrictions on their clothes and movement.

Immense progress was made in girls’ education in Afghanistan after the US-led forces ousted the Taliban earlier in 2001.

The number of schools tripled and the female literacy nearly doubled to 30 percent. The change was, though, largely limited to the cities.

Nasrin Hasani, a teacher at a Kabul secondary school, said the “Afghan women have made great achievements in the past 20 years”.

“As far as we all know, the religion of Islam has never hindered the education and work of women,” the 21-year-old added.

Questioning the Taliban’s reasoning, Hasani, who now helps out with primary pupils, added but the current situation has “lowered both our and the students’ morale”, AFP reported.

Hasani said she was clinging to hope that the Taliban will be “a little different” from their brutal 1996-2001 regime, when women were not even allowed out of their homes unchaperoned.

12-year-old Zainab, who was born years after 2001, has no memories of that period and loved going to school until the Taliban directive.

“It is quite obvious that things get worse day by day,” said Zainab, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, AFP reported.

Zainab’s sister Malalay, whose name has also been changed, tearfully said that she had “feelings of despair and fear”.

The 16-year-old, who now passes her time helping around the house, cleaning, washing dishes and doing laundry, had dreams of promoting women’s rights.

“My rights are to go to school and university… All my dreams and plans are now buried,” she said.