As Afghanistan’s school year commences, a grim reality sets in: that Taliban’s rule, more than 1 million girls are not allowed to study after the sixth grade. This severely harsh policy, with the atmosphere of the 1990s, puts Afghanistan at the forefront as the only country that officially restricts women’s education.
The UN children’s agency has stated that prior to the re-emergence of the Taliban around 5 million of the children were out of school due to numerous factors. Today, the Taliban by trying to bring back their regressive policies, the chances for Afghan girls to get education are in dire straits.
While male journalists were allowed to attend the Taliban’s education ministry ceremony at the start of the new school year, women journalists were forbidden to attend. Minister Agha Habibullah highlighted the need for combining religious and modern sciences. He underscored the importance of strictly adhering to Islamic and Afghan principles
Though the Taliban stresses on the education in the remoted areas as their priority in which Islam is taken more seriously than the basic literacy and numeracy thus raises a doubt about the standard and inclusivity of the curriculum offered. The insistence of the group on the rule of strict Islamic law which in turn continues to bar the way towards the actualization of gender equality in the country’s education system.
The Taliban’s restrictions are not restricted to girls’ education; instead, they involve other higher education opportunities, public spaces and job opportunities for women. Notwithstanding the commitments to moderate policies, the repressive policies still persist and often the human rights groups condemned them.
As the NGO Human Rights Watch also pointed out, the Taliban’s educational system also harmed boys by causing a critical drop in the number of qualified teachers and students. The group makes a call for action to deal with the large educational crisis that has affected all children of Afghan under Taliban rule.
While Afghanistan is faced with the difficulties of reconstruction of its education system, the Taliban’s regressive policies constitute a formidable barrier to international acknowledgment of the country and the creation of a future in which every Afghan citizen has equal opportunities.
