Outrage in Afghanistan over Taliban decision to prevent girls from going to school

Demonstrations of outrage were repeated in Afghanistan after the Taliban, with their traditional misogyny, decided that only boys would return to high school classes after a closed month.

Girls must stay in the houses. If they don’t finish high school, they won’t go to college, which would be the goal of this fanatical militia.

They attribute this decision to Islam, but experts in this religion deny such a provision. “There is nothing like it, it is theirs against women’s rights”said an analyst.

“Last night I didn’t sleep, all night I thought about my daughters. They had been at home for over a month and eagerly awaited the reopening of schools. But the (Taliban) government only allowed boys to return to school, ”Sakina told Efe, 38.

His daughters Hasina, 16, and Adila, 14, they cry inconsolably since they found out, they still won’t be able to go back to school. For now, only elementary school girls have been able to return to their classes.

“We are a poor family, we spend a lot of money on the education of our daughters, but now we do not know if they will be able to return to class or not,” he lamented.

Secondary schools had not reopened since August 15, when the previous Afghan government collapsed with the capture of Kabul by the Taliban.

For many, this decision is reminiscent of the one taken under the previous Taliban regime between 1996 and 2001, when they kept the girls locked up in their homes.

Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi came out in an attempt to allay the anger and insisted on Saturday that the opening of girls’ schools would take place “on time”, and said there was no was nothing to worry about. But no one trusts this ad.

TWENTY YEARS OF CHANGE

Human rights activists hope the Taliban will not repeat their past practices, with an Afghan society that has changed a lot over the past two decades, in addition to the need they have to gain worldwide recognition.

“We do not know what the Taliban are doing and what their plan is, but we ask them to remain committed to their promises to respect women’s rights,” Marghalara Khara, director of social affairs at the Ministry of Women, told EFE. dissolved. replaced by the Ministry of the Propagation of Virtue and vice prevention, already in effect during the Taliban’s first five years.

Khara remarked that the current situation “is completely different from that of the 1990s”, and also thanks to “national and international pressure”, he does not think that the Taliban will “ignore half of the Afghan population and the isolate”.

“There is nothing against Islam or anti-Islamic in girls’ schools and other women’s related organizations, I don’t know what the Taliban want to do, they should clearly tell the nation what they want to do with the women of this country, ”he said.

Since the fall of the Taliban regime with the US invasion in 2001, the situation of women has changed dramatically in much of Afghanistan, with a percentage of girls in school. went from zero to 39% in recent years, among the approximately 10 million students enrolled, according to official data.

Former Deputy Education Minister Ghulam Jailani Humayoon further insisted that women’s education is a “Fundamental right (and) it is not only an international principle, it is also part of the teachings of Islam.”

“Banning girls’ education will not only affect the education system, but will also seriously affect the spirit and morale of girls,” she said. Efe Humayoon, therefore, he added, it is the “responsibility” of the Taliban government to prevent this from happening.

In the Doha agreement, signed in February 2020 between the United States and the Taliban, which set a date for the departure of American troops from Afghanistan, the radical group pledged to respect human rights in the country, especially those of women, but their actions say the opposite.

There are no women in the interim government announced by the Taliban on September 7, many women have not yet been able to return to work, the women’s protests have been violently dispersed, and yesterday they replaced the Ministry of Status of Women, by that of the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which will be responsible for the rigid implementation of Islamic norms.

Agencies
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