The Taliban on Wednesday announced that it will not allow girls to attend high school, days after promising the opposite. The abrupt decision was made as hundreds of girls returned to schools across Afghanistan and were later told to go home.
The move is expected to complicate the fundamentalist group’s efforts to gain international recognition, as countries have been demanding that Afghan women of all ages be given unrestricted access to education.
Also Read: The Taliban Could Reverse Two Decades of Progress in Women’s Education in Afghanistan
Afghanistan’s Education Ministry released a notice on Wednesday stating that while the Taliban is committed to ensuring the educational rights of all Afghans, these rights must be within the framework of the Islamic Sharia law. In this respect, the Ministry said that girls of sixth grade and above will not be allowed to attend school. It also stated that boys of all ages can continue their education and that a final decision regarding allowing girls to pursue higher education will be made soon.
#UPDATE Taliban orders secondary girls schools in Afghanistan to shut just hours after they reopened, an official confirms, sparking confusion.
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) March 23, 2022
An @AFP team was filming at Zarghona High School in Kabul when a teacher entered and ordered everyone to go home pic.twitter.com/8JeLAYvTkP
The Taliban’s Doha spokesperson, Suhail Shaheen, said the move was only meant to postpone the opening of girls’ schools and not indefinitely bar girls from education. Shaheen claimed that a technical issue regarding the standardisation of uniforms for all students was preventing Education Ministry from allowing girls beyond the sixth grade to attend classes. “We hope the uniform issue is resolved and finalised as soon as possible,” he added.
Teachers, students, and parents across the country were shocked by the surprise announcement. Reuters reported that girls returned to campuses in excitement but immediately left in tears when they were told to go home. “We all became totally hopeless when the principal told us, she was also crying,” a student told the news agency.
Bizarre development on schools re-opening in Afg
— Secunder Kermani (@SecKermani) March 23, 2022
We’re at a girls high school in Kabul, students were so happy to be back - but - then the headteacher received a msg from local Taliban saying older girls *can’t* go back, despite what was previous announced
Many now in tears pic.twitter.com/vKdB6cu3df
A teacher based in Kabul told The Guardian girls arrived hours early before school started and were “happy and excited” to begin classes but the Taliban order reversed the mood altogether. “Many of them started arguing. I had nothing to tell them. I left an hour ago. I cried,” she lamented.
An eighth-grade student told The Wall Street Journal that she went to school only to be turned away by the Taliban who started firing in the air to disperse girls gathered outside a school in Kabul. “I’m so sad they didn’t allow me to go to school. They are playing with my future,” she said.
"Mum, they didn't let me enter my school. They're saying girls aren't allowed" Hopes and dreams shattered once again for millions of Afghan girls left in tears and devastated by the continued Taliban ban pic.twitter.com/ysNj79zfjE
— Yalda Hakim (@BBCYaldaHakim) March 23, 2022
On Monday, the Taliban announced that schools will reopen on March 23 for both boys and girls. An Education Ministry official even published a video congratulating all students on the beginning of a new school year.
One of the Taliban’s key promises following its seizure of power on August 15 was to allow girls to attend schools. The group had promised that girls will continue to have access to education and that the leadership would make sure that all of its fighters abide by this policy.
I had one hope for today: that Afghan girls walking to school would not be sent back home. But the Taliban did not keep their promise. They will keep finding excuses to stop girls from learning – because they are afraid of educated girls and empowered women. #LetAfghanGirlsLearn
— Malala (@Malala) March 23, 2022
The international community, too, has been demanding that the group not discriminate against women and allow them to continue working and attend schools. Various countries and international organisations have also stressed that any move to recognise the Taliban would depend on the group fulfilling these demands.
Education Ministry’s order that secondary girls schools will be closed until further notice is another blow to girl’s rights under Taliban’s rule. For seven months, girls in Afghanistan were effectively barred from returning to secondary school. https://t.co/KlRk9xUqdP
— Amnesty International South Asia (@amnestysasia) March 23, 2022
In this context, Wednesday’s announcement dealt a major blow to the credibility of the Taliban. The move to prevent girls from entering schools was widely condemned. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the move “a profound disappointment and deeply damaging for Afghanistan.”
“The denial of education not only violates the equal rights of women and girls to education, it also jeopardizes the country’s future in view of the tremendous contributions by Afghan women and girls,” Guterres said in a statement. “I urge the Taliban de facto authorities to open schools for all students without any further delay,” he added.
The United States’ (US) Chargé d’Affaires for Afghanistan, Ian McCary, said that he was “deeply troubled” by the development. “This is very disappointing and contradicts many Taliban assurances and statements. All Afghan youth deserve to be educated,” he tweeted.
I'm deeply troubled by multiple reports that the Taliban are not allowing girls above grade 6 to return to school. This is very disappointing & contradicts many Taliban assurances & statements. All Afghan youth deserve to be educated.
— Chargé d’Affaires Ian McCary (@USAmbKabul) March 23, 2022
Echoing these thoughts, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that the US “rejects the Taliban’s excuses for reversing their commitment to the people of Afghanistan that all Afghans would be able to return to school at all levels.” Blinken added that the decision will “profoundly harm” the Taliban’s efforts to improve ties with the international community.
The last time the Taliban was in power in Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001, they banned education and employment for girls guided by an extremist understanding of Islam. Girls were also brutally punished if they were found violating the group’s diktats. As a result, women’s literacy rate during the period plummeted to one of the lowest in the world—13% in urban areas and 4% in rural areas.
While the Afghan government that replaced the Taliban in 2001 following the US invasion was able to make significant strides in increasing access to education, the Taliban’s return to power has threatened to undo two decades of progress.