Taliban refuses to send girls back to school—again
Afghan girls in seventh grade and above were promised their return to school. Instead, they were met with disappointment in the form of Taliban officials who stood outside the gates of these learning institutions and turned them away.
On March 23, many female students in Afghanistan had put on their already conservative clothes, packed their bags, and were excited to go back to school — which is a statement itself — for the first time in about seven months, or since the Taliban came back into power in August.
However, happiness quickly turned to sadness when the Ministry of Education released a notice on that same day, expressing that schools for girls would remain closed until regulations could be made in compliance with Islamic law and Afghan culture, said Bakhtar News Agency.
Videos of Afghan girls crying outside their schools after receiving the devastating news promptly circulated online. “What is our crime? That we are girls?” said a young woman, anonymously, to TOLO, an Afghan news outlet. Not only has the Taliban gone against what they promised — the protection of press freedom and women’s rights — during the regime’s first press conference last August, but they have gaslit Afghan women into thinking their gender is what is wrong in this situation.
“Is gaining knowledge a sin?” asked Marjan, an 11-year-old girl living in Kabul, in an interview with TIME. “Or is there nothing after sixth grade?”
In the United States, it is not uncommon for someone to choose to opt out of college, or even forgo a high school education. In Afghanistan, females no longer have the option to educate themselves past the sixth-grade level. Girls’ primary schools are not available in many provinces. Some provinces are not even allowing women in universities, despite an already incredibly strict dress code, if they were not already studying when the Taliban came back into power in 2021. And attending college has now become unrealistic for some, who would otherwise be eligible, due to several new restrictions on women’s rights.
As of March 27, the Taliban has banned women from traveling unless they are accompanied by a mahram, or male relative chaperone. Gender segregation is now enforced in parks, schools, and other public spaces. For Afghan women and girls, gone are the days of sharing a classroom with one’s brother or enjoying a leisurely walk through the park with one’s father.
Even having a mahram is a privilege for some women, like Aziza, a 22-year-old studying psychology at a university in the northern province of Kunduz. In an interview with TIME, Aziza shared how she is not sure how she will be able to finish her degree and fulfill her hopes of becoming a schoolteacher without a mahram, since her father is dead. One can only imagine how isolating and discouraging it would be to be denied a higher education as the result of a parent’s passing, to be denied an opportunity to make them proud, to make oneself proud.
Afghanistan is filled with women willing to put in the effort, wanting to receive an education, wanting to work — some even willing to risk their life in pursuit of it. The country’s economic standing continues to plummet and UNICEF estimates that “3.2 million children in Afghanistan will suffer from acute malnutrition in 2022.” The restriction of women’s education will only continue to make things worse.
The Taliban’s behavior has forced families to consider the risk of even letting their daughters outside. Due to the restriction of women from many workplaces, like government offices, some no longer see the point of pursuing an education at all. And who can blame them? The thought of life after graduation and securing one’s dream job is what keeps a lot of students going. But what if there were no rewards to reap at the end of it all? What if the future was only as bright as the florescent lighting in the living room of one’s family home? Since that is where some have been forced to stay, stuck sitting with the wasted potential of their higher education.
Afghan women have done what they can to protest the Taliban’s restrictive measures, but it has only gotten them beaten, pepper sprayed, and taken. The Taliban has proven itself to be, yet again, an untrustworthy regime with beyond questionable intentions.
International interference is the only way forward. Western powers have made it clear that the Taliban must allow girls back in school for them to recognize the regime’s rule and consider their request for financial aid. And this has yet to happen, despite previous assurances. Organizations like the United Nations have made it an increasingly simple decision for the Taliban by agreeing to pay school teachers’ salaries, making the regime’s lack of action even less excusable.
The Taliban is an unreliable regime that has left Afghan women feeling forgotten with their egregious human rights violations, sending 20 years of progress down the drain. “I urge the Taliban de facto authorities to open schools for all students without any further delay,” said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in a statement on March 23. The time for urging has passed. Now is the time for further action. The Taliban must be shown that this is a matter that the international community is not willing to compromise on. “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” If we allow the Taliban to fool us again, with their weak reasoning as to why they are unable to follow up on past assurances, shame on us.
