Persistence of deprivation of girls from education causes social problems and weakens access. Women look for educational opportunities in the country. Creating this situation is the main goal of the Taliban.
With the fall of power in the hands of the Taliban on August 15, 2021 and the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan, the living conditions in Afghanistan have completely changed. The first victims of this unfortunate development were Afghan women and girls. As expected, the Taliban deprived women and girls from work and education in the first step; A large number of women working in government offices lost their jobs and the offices related to women’s affairs were abolished. The Ministry of Women’s Education was transformed into the Ministry of Affairs, representing the Taliban. For more than a year, girls have been deprived of education and schools above grade six have been closed all over the country. Most of the people of Afghanistan are facing problems such as unemployment, poverty, massacres, violence and immigration.
The Taliban is the same group that came to power in the 1990s and tested the people of Afghanistan – women were deprived of education and work for five years. The people of Afghanistan should know that the Taliban’s misogynist policy has not changed; They have not changed at all!
The Taliban focused on restricting women’s affairs in the society and canceled all government departments related to women’s affairs and imprisoned and suppressed women defenders of women’s rights. In order to prevent women’s rights activists from continuing their protests, they took forced confessions from women activists in order to silence their voices in Afghanistan so that they would not plead for their rights. This performance of the Taliban continues. Women continue their protests in closed places out of fear and their voices are heard by the world through social media. A large number of them cannot raise their voices because of the fear of the Taliban so as not to be oppressed by the Taliban.
The continued deprivation of girls from education has become one of the biggest concerns of the people of Afghanistan and the international community. Families are very worried about the future of their daughters. A large number of families have taken the path of migration for the sake of their daughters’ education, so that they don’t have to search for a place for their daughters to continue their education. This is not a dangerous and easy task for families and they face many problems. The countries they are looking for do not show much favor to Afghan immigrants and the field of education is difficult to get.
But the Taliban apparently declare that we are not against women’s education and work, and that Islam has given women the right to education, and we are committed to it; But this is not the case in practice. Their negative actions against women’s education have been proven and have left no room for doubt. The Taliban use every possible means to limit women’s educational and work activities. The people of Afghanistan have also realized the fact that the Taliban are playing with the fate of girls and are not honest about women’s rights. They praise Islam, but they act against Islamic teachings and use religious teachings for their own benefit to justify their actions.
On the other hand, the pressure of the people and the international community has caused the Taliban to provide many reasons to justify the ban on girls’ education, such as cultural problems, lack of security, hijab issues, education is not permitted. But the remarkable thing is that all these reasons were not and are not acceptable to the people of Afghanistan. Afghan people want logical and Shariah reasons, not illogical and non-Shariah reasons. The Taliban have not yet been able to provide a convincing reason for the people – they have no reason to ban women’s education!
At the same time, Taliban spokespersons promise the people of Afghanistan and the international community that they will open girls’ schools. Recently Zabihullah Mujahid said in a meeting in Turkey: “The opening of girls’ schools is certain”, but the question is when will it be opened? When there is no more opportunity and all the educational structures of women have fallen apart? For a year, there has been no progress in the reopening of girls’ schools above the sixth grade. In principle, the Taliban do not want girls to have access to education, it is just an excuse and a waste of time. Mr. Zabihullah Mujahid’s statements are made only to waste time and reduce national and international pressures.
During the last twenty years, families paid a lot of attention to the education of their daughters, but now they are in serious danger. Educational centers are not safe and young people are torn apart in suicide attacks, especially the Hazara people. As we have seen, more than 55 female education scholars were martyred in the suicide attack in Kaj educational center and they lost their sweet lives in the way of science and knowledge. Many believe that the Taliban themselves are involved in such incidents in order to limit the scope for girls’ education and have a reason to keep girls’ schools closed.
The main and important issue is that the Taliban are “principally against the education of women and girls”; With this procedure, he wants to create the ground for weakening and destroying the foundations of education for women and girls in Afghanistan and to turn the prohibition of girls’ education into a culture in the society and eventually be forgotten.
The continuation of this policy will have several irreparable consequences for the education of girls and women in Afghanistan:
First, families are disappointed and push their daughters into forced and unwanted marriages. This issue provides the basis for the violation of children’s rights; A large number of children will be subjected to various forms of violence.
Second – a large number of girls lose the opportunity to study and will not be able to continue their education and automatically leave the economic, political, social and cultural cycles – this is a big danger for Afghan women – the complete privacy of women from their rights.
Third – Most girls’ schools across the country have become dilapidated and no attention will be paid to their care; Or that the schools will be turned into military bases or warehouses – as Hasht Sobh newspaper from Balkhab reported that the Taliban have turned Syed Jamaluddin Afghan High School in the center of Balkhab into their military base.
Fourth, most of the female teachers of girls’ schools will be dispersed or stay at home. This issue itself will be a big blow to the human resources of Afghanistan’s education. Finally, depriving women of their education and other rights has become a culture in society, and families and officials will ignore girls’ education without any concern and will not be sensitive to girls’ education. This will be a human rights disaster for Afghan women!
Considering the policy of the Taliban against women, the people of Afghanistan should not lose hope and try to put pressure on the Taliban to respect women’s rights and reopen girls’ schools. On the other hand, as much as they can, they should provide education for girls so that the achievements of many years are preserved and the education process continues; Do not give in to the pressure of the Taliban. We should also know that the Taliban will sooner or later surrender to the demands of the Afghan people and respect women’s rights. No power can resist the legitimate demands of the people; The people of Afghanistan will one day get their rights. The Taliban group has no reason to continue its against women’s ideology to force the Afghan people to accept it. Education is a human and religious right of Afghan girls and women, which no one can deny in any way.
Also, the international community should not forget the people of Afghanistan and use any means of pressure to support Afghan women to force the Taliban to respect human rights, especially women’s rights. Supporting women’s rights in Afghanistan is the human and moral responsibility of the international community, which should not be ignored. Do not allow the Taliban to implement its misogynist policy in the Afghan society.
