It has been weeks since December 22 that the Taliban banned women from attending universities across the country. Girls above 6th grade were already banned from going to schools since 2021 when they seized power for the second time after two decades of war.
The Taliban also prevented women from workplaces, and beauty salons were already banned in different provinces. Public parks were also divided in two sections in a week between men and women. Women had already been banned from traveling long distances without male partners.
But after closing education doors, the Afghan female university students have launched a campaign of resistance, risking beatings and arrest. At the same time, their male students have shown solidarity with them by walking out of their exams. Even male professors resigned from their posts and many students staged protests and warned not to write exams unless their female classmates are not attending.
There is a general perspective that as much as the Taliban tries to crush girls’ and women’s rights, they are unlikely to achieve a final victory and at the end they need to reopen schools and universities.
The Afghan women and girls will not remain silent as they know that education is their fundamental right. Afghan girls and women enjoyed a right to education in the past 20 years before the Taliban’s return in 2021, and now there is no force to silence them even if a prison sentence can’t do this. They have experienced the value of education as they worked in several government and NGOs posts and they will not accept any alternative.
Difficult to commemorate the International Day of Education
Afghanistan is the only country in the world where education is banned against women and girls. Many countries commemorated the International Day of Education on 24 January, and honored their male and female teachers for hard working to educate sons and daughters of the soil. But in Afghanistan, it’s difficult to commemorate this today knowing that Afghan women and girls are now denied this right.
In reality, a ban on education means to further disregard women’s rights, as well as pushing them into a complete isolation. The Taliban must understand that education is an investment in Afghanistan’s future and must be available to boys and girls. Indeed, the ban on education is a violation of the rights of millions of human beings, a grave one.
In this International Day of Education, USAID has awarded long-time partner American University of Afghanistan up to $27m over 4 years to help students access higher education opportunities in Afghanistan. “USAID stands proudly with Afghan students, women and men alike, to pursue their dreams. Education is a right,” it said.
Besides that, USAID, and other NGOs can run different kinds of projects for women empowerment such as round tables through radio channels, short clips of video through the televisions, and focus group discussions. This is always one way to help this community.
The Taliban are the only government on the surface of this world that has barred women and girls from receiving an education, and no other country has such draconian forms of state-led gender persecution.
Taliban must reverse ban on education
UN Secretary-General Antonia Guterres in his statement on the occasion of International Day of Education, called on the Taliban to reverse the “outrageous and self-defeating ban on access to secondary and higher education for girls and women in Afghanistan.”
The decision has dashed to the ground the dreams of millions of school and university students, said a student Khaledi.
Speaking to Harici, Khaledi said that the world must remove this day as “International Day of Education” because all doors of education closed in Afghanistan, and the girls and women have been barred from education. “Why are we living in such a country where our rights to education have been taken away from us,” she questioned. She also called on the Taliban to immediately reverse the decision and let the girls and women to study and work.
The Taliban also banned women from working in NGOs. UN deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed had this week said that the Taliban have already been warned that if they exclude women from work performed by NGOs providing food and healthcare, these organizations will have no choice but to leave the country.
1.1m girls are banned from secondary school
Another student, Omra said that she hopes to see schools reopened for girls again. “I can’t wait to go to school; I am really missing my class and classmates.”
Meanwhile, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in a statement said that Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, has decided to dedicate the 2023 International Day of Education (January 24) to Afghan girls and women.
“Now is the time to end all discriminatory laws and practices that hinder access to education,” Guterres said on twitter.
On Tuesday, OCHA also reported that now 1.1 million Afghan girls are banned from secondary school and more than 100,000 others are banned from universities.
