Marzia felt happy and hopeful when she heard that the schools were going to reopen.
Early Wednesday, at her hilltop home west of Kabul, Marzia packed her backpack for school for the first time since the Taliban seized power last August.
“I put on so happy when I heard the school was going to reopen,” the 15-year-old told the BBC. “It gives me hope for the future once more.”
Around 200 young people attended Sayed ul Shuhada School, a lower number than usual as many female students and their families wondered if the classes were really going to start or not and whether it would be safe to attend.
Since August 2021, only the schools for children and primary school for girls in most of Afghanistan.
new academic year
This Wednesday, while starting a new academic yearSecondary schools for girls were expected to reopen along with other institutes.
It was a particularly moving moment for the students here. Last year, more than 90 of her classmates and school staff died in an attack perpetrated by the local group linked to the self-styled Islamic State.
“The first suicide bombing happened very close to me,” says Sakina, her eyes filling with tears. “There was many dead people in front of me… I didn’t think I’d survive.”
sakina wants rebuild your life following last year’s bombing and the Taliban takeover.
Sakina wants to rebuild her life following last year’s bombing and the Taliban takeover.
Overwhelmed with emotion, she pauses before continuing: “our revenge once morest the people who did this will be to continue our education. We want to be successful in our lives, to fulfill the dreams of our martyrs.”
Upon entering the classrooms, the students cleaned the desk dustbut already some of the teachers were whispering that the school would unexpectedly have to close once more.
The local Taliban government education official, who had given us permission to film at the school earlier this week, sent a WhatsApp message to the principal, saying that girls’ secondary schools they would remain closed until new notice.
The girls arrived at school on Wednesday morning before being told it would be closed once more.
The students reacted with surprise and horror. Some began to cry. “We just want to be able to learn and serve our people,” Fatima said.
“What kind of country is this? What is our sin?” she asked, visibly distressed, addressing the Taliban.
“They are always talking regarding Islam, does Islam say that women should be harmed in this way?”
Sharia Education
It is difficult to understand the logic of the Taliban. Nevertheless, it was carried out a ceremony of the Ministry of Education which marked the beginning of the academic year.
Aziz ur Rahman Rayan, a spokesman for the ministry, said all preparations had been made for schools to reopen, but the group’s central leadership had ordered them to remain closed until “a plan integral according to Sharia law and Afghan culture.
The closure of secondary schools for girls was a last minute decision by the Taliban.
However, even before the Taliban took power, high schools in Afghanistan were already segregated by gender. The uniform consisted of modest black attire and a white hijab or veil.
In several provinces, local Taliban officials had already begun to allow the reopening of schools girls’ secondary schools last year, despite the lack of a central official policy.
Privately, Taliban leaders admit that the issue of female education it is controversial among its toughest leaders.
Sayed ul Shuhada school students learned that they would not have classes once they were in the classrooms.
The chaotic nature of this policy change suggests that the core leadership of the Taliban decided, at the last minute, to override his own Ministry of Education, worried regarding aligning himself with its most ultra-conservative members.
Divergent opinions
The divergence of views within the Taliban is sometimes related to their geographic location.
In a more cosmopolitan northern part of the country, even under the “shadow government” which the Taliban set up during their insurgency, a local leader once proudly showed me still functioning girls’ schools during a visit.
In contrast, in a rural area of the conservative southern province of Helmand, I asked a Taliban fighter regarding female education, and he replied with a smile: “If girls want to learn, your brothers they can go to school and then teach them at home.
But even in the most conservative areas, most ordinary Afghan families now seem to be in favor of female education.
Afghan women have protested for their access to education and employment to be respected.
Many have long questioned whether the Taliban have changed since they were in power in the 1990swhen women were forced to wear the burqa and primary schools for girls remained closed.
The landscape has new shades now. A recent World Bank study found that there was actually an increase in female primary school attendance since the Taliban’s takeover as security improved.
In the meantime, the group has allowed women to attend college as long as classes are segregated.
But Wednesday’s decision to keep girls’ high schools closed seems to entrench the abyss that still exists between the Taliban leadership and contemporary Afghan society.
