Afghan teenager Amena saw dozens of classmates die when his school was attacked by the Islamic State in May. Still she wanted to continue studying, but the Taliban forbid it.
The New Masters of Afghanistan they do not let most of the students return to the classroom high school.
“I wanted to study, see my friends and build my future, but now I no longer have the right “to do so, laments this 16-year-old girl with whom AFP spoke at her home in western Kabul.
“Since the arrival of the Taliban, I am sad and angry”, Add.
A Taliban patrol in Kabul. AP Photo
On September 18, Afghanistan’s new Islamist leaders allowed male teachers and boys 13 years and older to return to class. But not the teachers or the girls.
The changes
Later the Taliban specified that they would allow the girls to return to secondary schools once division by sex is guaranteed in classrooms, something that used to be done.
Some young women were able to go back to high schools, as in Kunduz province in the north, but the vast majority still do not have access to education.
Primary schools have reopened to all children.
Amena lives near Sayed Al-Shuhada High School, where 85 people, mostly teenagers, died in bomb attacks claimed by the Islamic State group.
“They killed innocent girls”, Amena says looking at the ground with teary eyes. “I saw dying and injured girls with my own eyes. Despite this, I wanted to go back to school.”
Amena had to enter a new cycle in which she was going to study her favorite subjects, such as biology. Instead she lives cloistered at home, with some books and “nothing special to do”.
I dreamed of being a journalist, but “Now there is no hope in Afghanistan.”
Her older brothers and sisters help her at home and from time to time the psychologist attends her who takes care of her little sister, still traumatized by the attack on the school.
“My brother brings history books and I read them,” Amena says. “And I always watch the news.”
Amena does not understand why girls are prohibited access to secondary schools.
“Girls also have the right to study. They are half of society. There is no difference between us.”
The complaints
After the US invasion that drove out the Taliban in 2001, there were advances in education for girls. The number of schools tripled and the literacy rate for women nearly doubled to 30%. But the change was largely confined to the cities.
“Afghan women have made great achievements in the last twenty years,” estimates Nasrin Hasani, a 21-year-old teacher who worked in a secondary school and has now moved to a primary school.
Nasrin Hasani, a 21-year-old teacher. AFP photo
But the current situation “It undermines our morale and that of the students”he added. “As far as I know, Islam has never hindered the education and work of women.”
Hasani has not been intimidated by the Taliban, but Amnesty International has reported that a physical education teacher had received death threats and she had been summoned before a local court for teaching sports to girls and boys.
The young woman clings to the hope that the Taliban of 2021 be “a little different” those who were in power between 1996 and 2001, who prohibited women from leaving the house alone.
Twelve-year-old Zainab remembers the day the children were able to go back to school. She saw them through the window with “an outrageous feeling.”
“I was happy at school,” he told AFP. “I could study all day and dream about the future.” But now “things get worse day by day”.
“If the schools do not reopen soon, the school year will be over and we will not be able to move on to the next year,” adds the teenager, whose name has been changed to protect her identity.
Malalay, Zainab’s 16-year-old sister “doesn’t know how to express” her dismay. “I feel despair and fear”she says between sobs.
He spends his time doing housework. “We don’t go out, we don’t go to school, everything is going wrong for me”, Add.
“Men should not deprive me of my rights. I have the right to go to college and university,” he says. “All my dreams and projects are buried. On the ground.”
AFP Agency
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