Afghanistan finally opened its classrooms back up on Saturday the 18th after being shut down for nearly a month due to the Taliban takeover. The Taliban ordered boys in grades seven through twelve to return to school, leaving the girls in those grades at home worried about their access to education. While girls in younger grades were allowed to attend, they had to be segregated from the boys. Many families still held their younger girls back at home in fear. The Taliban claimed they were looking for safe transportation for girls to get to school, but this has nonetheless sparked nationwide fear for the future. There is worry that the Taliban will permanently ban these girls from school, which would leave millions of girls in Afghanistan with crushed dreams.
Many people in Afghanistan, mothers in particular, are feeling deja vu from the mid 1990s. After the Taliban took over Kabul in 1996, they continued to gain momentum and gain control over Afghanistan throughout 1997-1998. It was during this time period that they began stripping women of their rights. They banned women from working and getting an education, and also performed brutal punishments. Women would get beaten, amputated, and publicly executed. When first restricting girls from school, the Taliban said they did so for security and safety reasons. This sounds scarily similar to what spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said to an Afghan media group the other day. He told them they were, “working on an approach so that all women and girls can continue their education and employment,” yet he never stated when girls would be able to return. The current situation is nearly identical to 30 years ago, causing many to believe that history is repeating itself, and Afghanistan is moving backwards.
The Taliban continues to create segregating environments between women and men in education. They claim, “coeducation is in opposition to sharia law.” Male teachers are not allowed to teach girls above third grade, universities must have separate classrooms for men and women, and female teachers are becoming less and less available. Thousands of professors are trying to leave Afghanistan, which could lead to an overall education crisis. Women are frustrated that they are fighting for a basic right they used to have in the past, and that they can’t receive an education without being seen as sinful or scared for their safety.
All of these are warning signs pointing towards an Afghanistan with even worse treatment of women. Women have been ordered to stay out of public until security concerns fade, and have been getting beaten by Taliban workers as they protest against the government. Protests are taking shape in other ways too, with many boys staying home from school to advocate for their sisters and friends.
(“We don’t go to school without our sisters”)
People are calling for the international community to take action. Pashtana Durrani (founder and executive director of Afghanistan-based charity LEARN) begs for intervention, and for the international community (Russia, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia) to use their leverage to threaten to stop funding the Taliban if they continue to withhold education from girls.
If or when teenage girls may return to school, it is uncertain whether or not the Taliban will censor what is being taught. There is speculation that female figures from history, or lessons on reproduction from biology, will be erased from textbooks.
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