By: The Peace Window

725 days have passed since girls’ schools were closed to girls above the sixth grade and nearly a year has passed since the ban on female students going to universities in the country, which has caused thousands of Afghan girls to be deprived of their right to education.

Following the restrictions on Afghan girls’ right to education and the growing international criticism of increasing these restrictions, the United States Institute of Peace says that the Taliban’s anti-women policies have strengthened patriarchal methods in Afghanistan.

In the report of this institute, it is also stated that under the rule of the Taliban, women are deprived of identity, education, work, recreation, travel, sports and equal access to humanitarian aid.

Mursal Karimi is one of the 12th grade students who stayed at home due to restrictions and was deprived of his right to study.

He says: “I never thought that I would have to drop out of school in my country because I am a girl.  For two years, we have been waiting every moment for the school gates to open for girls, but unfortunately, every day, instead of improving, the situation of girls and women in the country is getting worse and more limited, it is even harder for us to breathe here.”  .

Meanwhile, after banning girls from going to school, a number of them have been forced to submit to forced marriage due to family traditions.

Zainab Rahmani is another female student who was denied going to school and says that after the schools were closed, several of her classmates got engaged at a young age.

He says, “After the school gates were closed, I didn’t see my friends and classmates for a long time, but after a few months, one of my classmates, who is my close friend, had to get engaged to a man who is older than her.”  They told her father that the girl should not stay at home too much, now that she does not go to school, it is better to get engaged.”

Meanwhile, Mohammad Khaled Hanafi, Acting Minister of the Ministry of Good and Prohibition of the Taliban government, said during his trip to Badakhshan that the rights of women and girls have not been violated in the current government, and some countries consider the current government to be a violation of rights.  Women accuse that they themselves have violated women’s rights.

After the fall of the government in Afghanistan, it has been two years that the lives of Afghan women and girls have faced many restrictions, such as closing the gates of schools and universities to girls, banning women from working in government offices, closing women’s hair salons, among these restrictions.