In July, the Taliban introduced a gathering of handpicked clerics to resolve on the destiny of the schooling ban. However solely two clerics got here in help of the women’ schooling. Since then, the Taliban has not made any progress on whether or not they’re keen to compromise
“Initially, we have been hopeful that they might reopen colleges, however with the passage of time, we observed that, no, they’re doing one thing else. They only concern anti-women verdicts after every day,” Nazhand mentioned. “I do not assume that they’re keen to reopen colleges, the Taliban haven’t any drawback with ladies’ colleges, however they need to exploit them politically. They need to proceed their ruling on society by banning ladies colleges. It’s of their curiosity to impose restrictions on ladies as a result of they can not do it on males.”
After the US army intervention of Afghanistan in late 2001 that ousted the Taliban from energy, the war-torn nation witnessed a collection of socioeconomic reforms and rebuilding applications. The post-Taliban structure, which was ratified in 2004, expanded ladies’s rights to go to high school, vote, work, serve in civic establishments, and protest. By 2009, ladies have been operating for president for the primary time within the nation’s historical past.
However the 4 many years of struggle and hostility inflicted huge hurt to Afghanistan’s primary infrastructures, together with to the nation’s instructional property.
And even earlier than the Taliban seized energy on Aug. 15 final yr, a report by UNICEF discovered that Afghanistan had struggled with greater than 4.2 million youngsters out of college, 60% of whom have been ladies. Though the potential prices of not educating girls and boys alike are excessive when it comes to misplaced earnings, not educating ladies is very expensive due to the connection between instructional attainment and pupil delaying marriage and childbearing, taking part within the workforce, making decisions about their very own future, and investing extra within the well being and schooling of their very own youngsters later in life. The evaluation signifies that Afghanistan will probably be unable to regain the GDP misplaced in the course of the transition and attain its true potential productiveness with out fulfilling ladies’ rights to entry and full secondary college schooling. UNICEF additionally estimated that If the present cohort of three million ladies have been in a position to full their secondary schooling and take part within the job market, it could contribute at the very least $5.4 billion to Afghanistan’s financial system.
A report by Amnesty Worldwide additionally says that the Taliban have prevented ladies throughout Afghanistan from working.
“Most girls authorities staff have been advised to remain dwelling, apart from these working in sure sectors resembling well being and schooling,” the report states. “Within the personal sector, many ladies have been dismissed from high-level positions. The Taliban’s coverage seems to be that they may permit solely ladies who can’t be changed by males to maintain working. Girls who’ve continued working advised Amnesty Worldwide that they’re discovering it extraordinarily troublesome within the face of Taliban restrictions on their clothes and habits, such because the requirement for ladies medical doctors to keep away from treating male sufferers or interacting with male colleagues.”
“Twenty years in the past, when the Taliban took management of Afghanistan, the very first thing they did was a ban on ladies’s entry to schooling,” Nazhand mentioned. “The Taliban stored numerous ladies in isolation and as an illiterate inhabitants; the result was a paralyzed and backward society. We should not overlook that the Taliban are nonetheless affected by the novel and repressive mindset that they might maintain 20 years in the past. We should not stay the ladies that we have been 20 years in the past, and we is not going to stay silent.”
Safety threats and acts of terrorism have additionally been a significant concern to the scholars in Afghanistan. In late October, a suicide bomber attacked a category filled with over 500 college students in west Kabul, killing at the very least 54 college graduates — amongst them have been 54 younger ladies. The assault marked the second lethal assault on schooling facilities within the nation for the reason that Taliban had taken over energy.
