KABUL: The voices of Afghan girls, silenced from formal education since September 2021 due to a Taliban-imposed ban on secondary schools for girls, resound with grief and hopelessness as they recount their shattered dreams and aspirations.
Salma, now deprived of education since the eighth grade, reflects the sentiments of over 1.1 million Afghan girls aged 13 and above who have been denied access to schools under Taliban rule. “Every morning felt very exciting. We would meet our friends and teachers. We used to play together, eat and, of course, study,” Salma told Arab News, expressing her dashed hopes of becoming a teacher.
Efforts to overturn the ban have been futile, despite domestic appeals and international pressure. The Taliban have justified the ban as an “internal matter,” restricting girls’ education solely to Islamic madrasas. Even attempts at private online learning were prohibited.
The ban has extended to universities as well, affecting over 100,000 female students who are now unable to complete their degrees.
In response to the prolonged closure of schools, Afghan activists have launched the “Iqra” campaign, meaning “read”, to amplify the voices of affected girls and young women. The campaign, led by civil society organizations Musawer and Rawadari, aims to draw attention to the plight of these girls, who yearn for the reopening of schools and universities to pursue their education and fulfill their aspirations.
Shaharzad Akbar, director of Rawadari, expressed deep sadness over the lost opportunities for these young women. “They can never go back and be of the same age and go back to school,” she lamented.
Fazila Muruwat, former head of the Kunar Teachers’ Education College, emphasized the broader societal repercussions of the education ban, noting the despair among students and educators alike. “Female teachers are also forgetting a lot of what they have learned and taught before,” Muruwat stated.
Mahbob Mowahed, principal of a private school in Kabul, warned of the profound psychological and social consequences of denying education to girls. “Women are an important part of the society and we cannot keep them illiterate forever,” Mowahed asserted.
“An entire generation was thrown into darkness. This is such a loss that Afghanistan will not be able to compensate for it for decades. It is not just a problem of girls but it is a discussion of the survival of Afghanistan,” Shafiqa Khpalwak, director of Musawer, told Arab News.
Activists fear the long-term consequences of denying girls their right to education. “I don’t know what the society will be like if girls don’t go to school and remain illiterate … This is a human disaster. This is a violation of human dignity,” Khpalwak lamented.
