In Afghanistan, the Taliban's ban on girls' education leaves thousands of classrooms empty
Kabul: Before the Taliban suspended secondary education for girls, some of Salma's friends attended her school in Kabul with their older sisters. But after the ban almost three years ago, they stopped going to class altogether.
“They didn't want to come alone. It is sad to lose my friends.
She also recalls visiting the older girls' classrooms on the second floor with her friends at the time — something she no longer does because the floor has been empty since Prohibition. It reminds the 12-year-old girl of the future ahead of her.
It is even sadder to think that after two years we will not be able to come to our school. “We will graduate after sixth grade and after that there will be no future for us.”
Since September 2021 – a month after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan – girls have been banned from secondary school, leaving an estimated 1.1 million girls without access to formal education and thousands of classrooms and buildings empty.
“Girls' schools are active only up to the sixth grade. An official of the Ministry of Education of Afghanistan told Arab News that the rest of the classes – grades 7 to 12 – are not used. “The remaining buildings are non-functional.”
Afghanistan officially recognized about 20,000 schools as of August 2022, only about half of which had functional buildings and about 5,000 were damaged after the war, data from the Ministry of Education shows. Meanwhile, according to official estimates, there were about 4,000 girls' middle and high schools in the country before the ban on education.
Najala Ahmadzai, a teacher at a public school in Kabul, said that while the classrooms and buildings that once housed older girls are now empty, they could be used to house more girls in the lower grades.
“Before, we did not have enough space to admit more female students. We had a very low acceptance rate. Now that we have more space, we can admit more girls, especially in grades one to three, she told Arab News, adding that the unused spaces could make a “positive change.”
But even then, the empty classrooms, previously used by upperclassmen, “gave my heart.”
“It's painful and unbelievable for me as a teacher and as a mother. I think about my own daughters and also the girls of the country. They have the right to an education and they deserve to be part of society.”
Abandoned buildings are a painful reminder of girls like Bibi Leila, who at 16 were not allowed to attend school.
“Instead of using the buildings to educate girls, especially older girls, they're just empty and become scary spaces because no one has been there for the last three years,” Leila said.
We have a school, we have a building, we have teachers, books and everything. We can go to school from tomorrow. But the (Taliban's) policy prevents me and thousands of other girls from getting an education and achieving our dreams and hopes.”
Neither domestic appeals nor international pressure on the Taliban government has helped lift the ban, which officials have repeatedly said is an “internal issue”. The ban was later extended to universities, preventing more than 100,000 female students from completing their degrees.
“If we don't go back to school, we will become illiterate,” Leila said. We are very sad but there is nothing we can do. “I think people in the country and the world forget about us.”
