Schools in Afghanistan reopened on Tuesday for the start of the new school year, but only a few teachers and primary school students arrived, and classes were not held because the students were unaware of the start. Several teachers and officials said the education ministry has not made any public announcements about reopening schools. “We handed the school principal a letter from the Minister of Education to reopen the school today, but since there was no public announcement, the students did not come,” confirmed Mohamed Osman Atay, a teacher at Saidal Al Nasseri Boys High School in Khartoum State. Hundreds of thousands of teenage girls are still not allowed to attend classes because Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls are not allowed to go to secondary school.
“The Taliban took everything we had from us,” said Sadaf Heydari, 15, from Kabul, who was due to start 11th grade this year. “I’m depressed and broken.” The ban on secondary education for girls came into effect in March last year, just hours after the Ministry of Education reopened schools for girls and boys. Taliban leaders have previously barred women from university education and have repeatedly said they will reopen girls’ high schools once “conditions” are met, from access to funding to changing the curriculum in line with Islamic principles.
Although the international community has placed women’s right to education as a precondition in negotiations to recognize the Taliban government, the movement has not backed down on its persecution of women and girls, with the United Nations saying that Taliban-ruled Afghanistan is “the most repressive state”. country in the world” on women’s rights. Women have been effectively pushed out of public life and excluded from most public positions in exchange for a portion of their previous salary to stay at home.
