Emilia Benz
Seven years ago the first masters degree course in gender and woman’s studies in Afghanistan began, today many girls aren’t even allowed to go to school anymore.
Girls have always been disadvantaged when it comes to education in many countries. In Afghanistan, not only the girls’ but the whole educational system has been deeply damaged by war, conflict and turmoil for the last 30 years. However, since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, there has been tremendous progress in education quality, quantity and equity for all levels of education. (WES 2016) The issue had seemed to be on the comeback trail until on the 23rd of March 2022 the Taliban announced that schools would not reopen as planned, since they have been closed for the last seven months due to the turmoil in the country. But this time, they remained closed only for girls. (Guardian 2022)
The history of Education in Afghanistan
The education in Afghanistan is comparable to a tragic roller coaster ride since 1933, when primary schools were first made available to about half the population. Before that only a little amount of schools even existed and they could only be attended by the elite. From 1933 on education developed more and became better and more accessible. A big setback was the Soviet Invasion in 1979, when successive wars led to an ongoing destruction of the educational system. Reasons derived from multiple areas: Most teachers fled, schools were used as bunkers or got destroyed and the whole political situation was generally getting less stable. Another reason was the religious restriction from the Taliban: From 1996 on only boys were allowed to profit from education and the madrassa, which is the mosque school, became dominant. During the Taliban regime 1.2 million students were registered, with only 50.000 of them girls. (K12 Academics 2022)
The page turned with the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001. Afghanistan received substantial international aid to restore the education system, which helped to accomplish several milestones: Kabul University was reopened in 2002 and others were built or restored and primary school registrations rose from 1 to 7 Million. (K12 Academics 2022)
Despite the improvements, education remained an urgent national development concern. Among other things this resulted from the religious and conservative dynamics in a lot of afghan families. As a result of women not going to school there was a lack of female teachers, which was a problem in rural areas where parents did not allow their daughters to be taught by men. Even though the Taliban were mostly held in check at this point in time, over 150 schools, especially the ones for females, were destroyed by the Taliban each year. A lot of parents doubted the safety of their daughters when going to school and therefore withheld them their education. (K12 Academics 2022)
Long before the Soviet invasion and the Taliban: Female students in front of the polytechnical university in 1975. (NZZ 2021)
The current issue
Most schools have been closed since the Taliban have returned to power in August 2021. Two months later, a few schools have opened up for boys and younger girls. For girls in 6th grade and upwards, schools remained closed for the last seven months. The official reasoning was Covid. The Taliban had announced, that schools, including secondary schools for girls, should reopen for everyone on Wednesday, the 23rd of March, the first day of the school year in Afghanistan. The Taliban led government announced only hours after opening up again, that most secondary schools would close again, forcing the girls and young woman to go home. The Taliban is yet to explain their decision officially. (Al Jazeera 2022b)
According to an Interview by the Guardian with a teacher in Kabul, the announcement wasn’t easy for them either. The teacher said: “Lots of excited girls were already waiting outside the school. They were here hours before their classes started. They were very happy and excited. Then we told them about the new order. Many of them started arguing. I had nothing to tell them. I left an hour ago. I cried.” (Guardian 2022)
Since then there have been protests in front of the Ministry of Education in Kabul. A small group of girls and women, according to the guardian about “two dozen”, have been advocating for their right to education. They feel betrayed since the Taliban had promised to follow a less restricting policy than they did 20 years ago. (Al Jazeera 2022a)
How can this problem be solved?
This is obviously a complex problem with lots of layers. The ban itself is executed by the restrictive Taliban government and even though they are facing “international condemnation” (Guardian 2022) for the ban, this will not stop them from suppressing girls and women. The international solidarity has to focus more on that problem.
It is still deeply anchored in the afghan culture that it is not a fundamental human right to go to school. There is a huge gap between urban and rural areas. A Taliban expert interviewed by the Guardian said: “In some rural areas a brother will disown a brother in the city if he finds out that he is letting his daughters go to school.” (Guardian 2022)
Since the internal conflicts of a country can only moderately be influenced by external observers, this will need generations of work to build up a functioning and stable educational system.
Unicef has a whole education program in Afghanistan where their support “focuses on the most vulnerable people in disadvantaged areas, particularly girls, to combat the lack of learning caused by poverty, discrimination and conflict.“ Unicef hopes to improve life quality in general by providing more and better education. A guiding principle found on their website is: “A girl’s education is not only a moral imperative but an economic necessity.»
However, this program had started long before the Taliban announced the ban and Unicef has not yet shared how they will adapt the program from now on. (UNICEF 2018)
The most effective but also the most dangerous way to stand up against this ban must come from within. The several girls and woman protesting in front of the Ministry of Education have already shown that they won’t accept this ban. According to Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani Woman who has won the Nobel Peace Prize for her fight for girls education, woman now have seen and felt what it is like to be educated and are therefore more empowered. “This time it’s going to be much harder for the Taliban to maintain the ban on girls’ education. This ban will not last forever.” she says. (Al Jazeera 2022a)
Bibliography
Guardian. 2022. “Girls-in-Afghanistan-School-Taliban @ Www.Theguardian.Com.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/23/girls-in-afghanistan-school-taliban.
Al Jazeera. 2022a. “Afghan-Girls-Protest-Demanding-Taliban-to-Reopen-Schools @ Www.Aljazeera.Com.” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/26/afghan-girls-protest-demanding-taliban-to-reopen-schools.
Al Jazeera. 2022b. “Taliban-Orders-Girls-Schools-Shut-Hours-after-Reopening @ Www.Aljazeera.Com.” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/23/taliban-orders-girls-schools-shut-hours-after-reopening.
K12 Academics. 2022. “History-Education-Afghanistan @ Www.K12academics.Com.” https://www.k12academics.com/Education Worldwide/Education in Afghanistan/history-education-afghanistan.
NZZ. 2021. “Afghanistan-von-Der-Sowjetischen-Invasion-Zu-Den-Taliban-Ld @ Www.Nzz.Ch.” https://www.nzz.ch/international/bildstrecke/afghanistan-von-der-sowjetischen-invasion-zu-den-taliban-ld.1546937.
UNICEF. 2018. “Education @ Www.Unicef.Org.” https://www.unicef.org/cambodia/education.
WES. 2016. “Education-Afghanistan @ Wenr.Wes.Org.” https://wenr.wes.org/2016/09/education-afghanistan.