BAHARIN LEHIB

Kabul- Before the Taliban takeover in 2021, Afghan girls also suffered from poverty, ban, conflict and corruption. Although billions of dollars were sent to Afghanistan in 20 years when the country was controlled by the U.S.-backed government for the education of girls, this amount went missing.

During the 20-year of the U.S.-backed government, the corruption in the government increased due to lack of interest in the education for women and girls. In Maidan Wardak province, there were one or two schools for girls only until the ninth grade.

Sajia Ghafari was going to school before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in mid-August 2021. After the Taliban, she could not complete her education life like millions of other Afghan girls. Now, she attends a religious school because girls can only receive religious subjects. But Sajia Ghafari is interested in science subjects. “When we started attending the religious school, we were told we would have to take many subjects. But unfortunately, we have taken only religious subjects,” she told NuJINHA.

The NuJINHA team spoke to many girls in the province and the majority told us that they could not go to school. Before the Taliban, girls could not go to school because the schools were far away from them and clashes broke out between the Taliban and the Hamid Karzai government. “We had to walk for hours to go to school and we sometimes got stuck in clashes. Our families decided not to send us to school because we were afraid,” said one of the girls.

Since the Taliban have banned girls from attending schools, some volunteer teachers give lessons to girls at home. Some of the girls in the province told us that they attended the classes at home.