Taliban prevent girls from attending secondary school, boys return to classes

The absence of teenage girls in classes while their male peers returned came after a decree issued by the Taliban on Friday ordered male students and teachers to return to high schools and religious seminaries.

The education ministry statement did not mention girls, which is a de facto restriction on their attending secondary school for now. The Taliban have allowed girls up to grade six to attend school, but they will be taught in separate classes from boys.

Some private universities have also been allowed to open classes for girls, although most of the girl students stay at home out of fear. The universities of Afghanistan are controlled by a separate ministry from the Ministry of Education.

The news raises fresh fears about how the Taliban will treat Afghan women. He has pledged to respect the rights of women within the limits of Islam, but has not fully elaborated on those limits. When the Taliban were in power in the late 1990s, they imposed harsh restrictions on women, banning them from most workplaces and education, and forbidding them to leave their homes without a male guardian.

“Now all the girls are sad. They want to study and work,” said a teacher at Malalai Girls’ High School in Kabul, who was not authorized to speak to the media. “Some of the girls were in their final semester. She was just one step away from graduation. And getting their diplomas, but look, now they don’t know what to do,” she said.

Narges Hosseini, a 14-year-old student of Class VIII at the Zebrael Girls’ School in the western city of Herat, said she could not read.

“I have worked very hard over the last eight years and have always been the best student in my class. I want to be a doctor and help my people.” She added, “I have big dreams.

Raheela Amir Mohamed, a female teacher at Habibiya Primary School for Girls in Kabul, where fifteen girls returned to class on Saturday, wearing black robes and white headscarves, said her school taught boys and girls together. However, the Taliban have now ordered them to segregate the students on the basis of gender.

Taliban officials have said they would consider allowing girls to attend schools once the security situation permits, a stance that echoes the movement’s policies when it was in power in the late 1990s. At the time, girls were not allowed to attend school due to perceived security concerns, but the Taliban never formally banned girls’ education. The Taliban have followed similar policies in areas under their control in recent years.

“Afghan women remember very well that from 1996 to 2001 they were never told they could never study or work. They were told to be patient and wait for the day that never came. So This moment feels very familiar,” said Heather Barr, associate director of Human Rights Watch’s women’s rights division, with expertise in Afghanistan. “There is no reason for much optimism that this ban will end,” she said.

The United Nations said it welcomed the reopening of secondary schools that had been closed for months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“However, we are very concerned that many girls may not be allowed to return at this time,” UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore said on Saturday.

According to people familiar with the talks, the United Nations has asked the Taliban to clarify when girls will be allowed to return to school, and diplomats still hope the new Afghan government will not impose permanent sanctions.

“We are hopeful that girls’ schools will reopen by next week. Otherwise, the situation will turn chaotic and the future of our children will be ruined,” said Sedika Nuristani, principal of Malalai High School in Kabul.

Some girls’ schools in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif reported that they were allowed to welcome girls into classes, despite restrictions elsewhere.

In Kabul, some boys stayed at home in solidarity with their female classmates.

“I didn’t go to school today to show my disagreement with the Taliban and protest girls’ refusal to go to school,” said 18-year-old Rohullah, a class 12 student at Vahdat Male School in the capital. Women make up half of the society. This shows that the Taliban has not changed. I will not come to school till girls’ schools also open,” he said.

Despite pledges to support women’s education and employment, Taliban leaders have effectively barred most Afghan women from work. Last month, the movement called on men back to government offices, but said security concerns made it unsafe for women. Health and education are the only major sectors where some women have returned to their jobs. In the 1990s, the Taliban also allowed women to work in those areas.

In a highly symbolic move, the Taliban have handed over the building of the previous government’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs to the newly re-established Ministry for the Prevention of Blame and the Promotion of Virtue.

In the 1990s that ministry was tasked with enforcing the Taliban’s radical Islamic laws, which often beat up women breaking strict dress codes or going out in public without a male guardian.

The international community has some economic leverage it can use to moderate influence on the Taliban, as the US and other Western countries freeze more than $9 billion in Afghanistan’s foreign assets – almost its entire stockpile – and halted most humanitarian aid. This has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the country, but also posed a serious challenge to the Taliban as they try to rule.

“The international community doesn’t have many cards, but it still has some, and it should use them to defend women’s rights,” Ms Barr said. “It faces the difficult task of trying to prevent a humanitarian crisis that is difficult but not impossible if there is political will.”