The future remains dark for Afghan women, as the Taliban recently prohibited girls over 10 in some provinces from attending primary school.
Local #Taliban officials have reportedly banned girls over 10 years of age from attending primary school classes in some provinces of #Afghanistan bringing in its latest set of restrictions against female education.
Read more here: https://t.co/MFPwS7kIS6— Hindustan Times (@htTweets) August 6, 2023
This new set of restrictions is part of the Taliban’s efforts to suppress women’s rights and access to education in Afghanistan. It also came just after the Taliban banned girls aged 11 and above from attending school and barred women from attending universities last December 2022.
Reports from BBC Persian said that officials from the Taliban’s Ministry of Education told principals of schools and short-term training classes in the southeastern province of Ghazni that “any girl over 10 years of age is not allowed to study in primary schools.”
Someday you guys will get sick, someday you will die, one day your count will reduce, one day Afghanistan will be freed by you losers! I am positive!
You are not in this world forever!!— Setu (@Sara_it_is) August 7, 2023
A sixth-grade student, which the Taliban permitted education only last year, said that girls over 10 years of age were not allowed to enter school.
"We were told that girls who are tall and over 10 years old are not allowed to enter the school," the girl from eastern Afghanistan told the BBC.
Meanwhile, local authorities from the “Ministry for Preaching and Guidance” segregated girls based on age in some provinces. These officials also ordered principals of the girls’ schools that female students above the third grade should be sent home.
In their thoughts, girls of 9 n beyond reach puberty age, fit for marriage.
— Ahmad sharif (@Ahmadsh85141426) August 6, 2023
Officials of non-governmental aid organizations working in the education field in Afghanistan also confirmed that they received similar recommendations and orders from the Taliban.
Mohammad Sadiq Akaf, spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry of Public Affairs, spoke about the regime’s recent crackdown on girls’ education in Afghanistan to the BBC, telling them that, "From our side, the administration has not done such a thing, and if something is done, it will be related to the Ministry of Education."
After the Taliban took over Afghanistan following the withdrawal of US-led foreign military forces from the country in 2021, the regime swiftly cracked down on women’s access to education, despite initial promises of a softer, more moderate rule compared to their previous stint in power from 1996 until a US-led military intervention in 2001.
The only way to save Afghans from Taliban terrorists is to kill all the big leaders of Taliban and Haqqani network one by one.
— Sunil (@Sunil011234) August 6, 2023
Last September 2021, the Taliban forbade women from attending secondary education, ordering that high schools should be reopened for boys only. The Taliban’s initiative of suppressing women’s rights didn’t stop at education. The fundamentalist regime also banned women from working at local firms and non-governmental organizations. This ban was also extended to Afghan women working for the United Nations.
