BAHARİN LEHİB

Kabul - Afghan young women and girls want to return to school. Since the Taliban took the control of the country, they have vowed to respect women’s rights but women have been deprived of their right to work and girls have been deprived of their right to education. These bans show the real face of the Taliban.  

 On March 23, the Taliban prevented girls above the 6th grade in Afghanistan from returning to school for “formulating the new plans for attendance with Islamic law”. NuJINHA spoke to Afghan young women and girls, who want to return to school.

 “I packed my schoolbag with excitement”

 Nazi Anwari, a 10th-grade student at Kabul High School, told us that they had waited excitedly for the new academic year but they were disappointed. “Before the new academic year, the Taliban announced in a statement that girls have the right to basic education from grades one to 12. Even if they didn't treat us well, I bought my new school clothes, packed my school bag, and went to school with great excitement and joy. But the Taliban didn’t allow us to enter the school. We asked why but we were told that they had to wait. “I think the biggest problem is that what is done to us is ignored by the world.”

 She wants to return to school and rebuild the country

 Nazi Anwari states that this situation will not last forever.

 “Afghan girls shouldn’t lose their hope. We should always believe in ourselves. We shouldn’t forget that this situation will not last forever. We will return to our school and be our country’s future builders. If the doors of schools are not opened to girls, chaos will start. You can fix everything but if education gets blown, it will not be fixed. I must say that education is the indispensable right of every man and woman.”

 “School is our second home”

 Hudaydah Thamer is another student in Kabul. Speaking about the day when the schools were expected to be opened for girls, she said, “I heard the schools would be reopened for girls. Actually, I didn’t go to school on the first day of the academic year. Then I learned from my friends that Taliban members sent back them home by insulting and humiliating them. Everyone should understand that school is our second home.”

 “The problem is not women but the mentality of the Taliban”

 Hudaydah Thamer told us that she has a year to graduate from high school. “I have only a year to graduate from high school. The problem in the country is not women but the mentality of the Taliban. We want to know our future but we are dragged into great uncertainty. The Taliban lost power once and if they continue to act like this, their government will lose power once again.”