In Afghanistan, girls’ secondary schools have not reopened

On Wednesday, marking the first day of the school year in Afghanistan, girls’ high schools, the equivalent of Italian middle and high schools, were supposed to reopen after nearly seven months. It has been closed since late August, when the Taliban regained power in the country. But in the end, there was no reopening, and on Wednesday morning the Taliban government announced that women were still unable to return to secondary school.

The reopening was announced last week by the Ministry of Education, after intense pressure from the international community to restore women’s access to all levels of education. So far in fact has reopened Only primary schools, i.e. primary schools and universities.

On Wednesday morning, many female students across the country went to school believing they would finally be back in class, only to find out about the government’s decision when they arrived. news agency France Press agency She had been to a high school in Kabul specifically to document the students’ return to class, but had encountered dozens of girls who had been forced back home.

Watch: AFP Video – The Taliban ordered the closure of girls’ secondary schools in Afghanistan, hours after they reopened https://t.co/rl7La3jlq0

– SatishCheney March 23, 2022

According to Aziz Rahman Rayan, a spokesman for the Ministry of Education, the government said today that schools will not open until after the ministry itself prepares a plan to allow women to go to school while respecting Afghan culture. Islamic Lawi.e. the set of Islamic moral and legal principles that the Taliban apply in a very radical way: for example, until it is decided what kind of dress to use for female students.

A heartbreaking picture – A father comforts his daughter who attended school today only to learn that the Taliban continues to ban girls’ education in Afghanistan.

pic Tweet embed pic.twitter.com/hBszhHcj9B

– Yalda Hakim (@BBCYaldaHakim) March 23, 2022

Moreover, even before the Taliban returned to power, classes in Afghan secondary schools were divided between boys and girls, and women were forced to wear discreet clothing and cover their heads with a headscarf. hijab or a scarf. Therefore, it is unclear how uniforms should be worn to allow girls to return to school, and many believe that the government’s decision is another attempt by the Taliban to limit Afghan girls’ right to education, as it did during their lifetime. first order.

According to a reporter BBC In Kabul, Secunder Kermani, the decision not to reopen schools would be due to internal disputes in the Taliban government among the more conservative and more moderate members, which could only have been resolved at the last minute. Only on Tuesday evening, in fact, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education published a video congratulating all students, boys and girls, on the start of the new school year.