Mazar-i-Sharif: When Narges and her sisters were allowed to return to school last month, they were ready for a new world outside their home. Led by their mother, each wore a black dress, a black abaya, scarves And mask, as well as a face mask. A few minutes later, Narges’s 16-year-old sister Hadiya, overcome with anxiety, fainted before leaving the house. When Hadiya When he went out and saw a Talib for the first time, his face was filled with tears.
Yet the girls consider themselves lucky. In mazar-i-sharif, a commercial center in the north of Afghanistan, Taliban Middle and high school girls have been allowed back to classes, even as most in the rest of the country have been forced to stay home.
Under pressure from foreign governments and international aid groups, Taliban officials insist that the last time terrorists were in power, things would be different for girls and women, and that there would be some form of education for them, including undergraduate and graduate programs. form will be allowed. Some middle and high schools have been allowed to reopen to girls in the north, where women have long held a more prominent role in society than in the Taliban’s southern bastion.
But many parents and teachers still suspect that the move means the new government, which has so far kept women out of government and faces most public jobs, will rule differently from before. “They may open schools, but indirectly they are trying to destroy women’s education,” said Shakeela, Narges and Hadiya’s mother. Already in Mazar-i-Sharif, the conditions for the return of girls are so restrictive that many are leaving education altogether.
New rules that segregate classrooms and teachers by gender have exacerbated severe teacher shortages and threaten to cut opportunities for higher education for girls. Many parents have kept their daughters at home, afraid to send them to school with armed talibs on the streets. Others no longer see the value of educating daughters who will graduate in a country where job opportunities for women disappear overnight.
The Taliban did not explicitly explain why some girls were allowed to return, but others were not. But other recent policy decisions, such as ousting women from top government positions and closing the ministry of women’s affairs, have sent a clear message to Afghan women: Even if they can get an education, their role in society will be limited.
Yet the girls consider themselves lucky. In mazar-i-sharif, a commercial center in the north of Afghanistan, Taliban Middle and high school girls have been allowed back to classes, even as most in the rest of the country have been forced to stay home.
Under pressure from foreign governments and international aid groups, Taliban officials insist that the last time terrorists were in power, things would be different for girls and women, and that there would be some form of education for them, including undergraduate and graduate programs. form will be allowed. Some middle and high schools have been allowed to reopen to girls in the north, where women have long held a more prominent role in society than in the Taliban’s southern bastion.
But many parents and teachers still suspect that the move means the new government, which has so far kept women out of government and faces most public jobs, will rule differently from before. “They may open schools, but indirectly they are trying to destroy women’s education,” said Shakeela, Narges and Hadiya’s mother. Already in Mazar-i-Sharif, the conditions for the return of girls are so restrictive that many are leaving education altogether.
New rules that segregate classrooms and teachers by gender have exacerbated severe teacher shortages and threaten to cut opportunities for higher education for girls. Many parents have kept their daughters at home, afraid to send them to school with armed talibs on the streets. Others no longer see the value of educating daughters who will graduate in a country where job opportunities for women disappear overnight.
The Taliban did not explicitly explain why some girls were allowed to return, but others were not. But other recent policy decisions, such as ousting women from top government positions and closing the ministry of women’s affairs, have sent a clear message to Afghan women: Even if they can get an education, their role in society will be limited.
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