Taliban fighters patrol a street in Kabul on November 21, 2021. Photo / Victor J. Blue, The New York Times
The Taliban abruptly reversed their decision to allow girls' high schools to reopen this week, saying that they would remain closed until officials draw up a plan for them to reopen in accordance with Islamic law.
The move is likely to deal a significant blow to the credibility the Taliban had been trying to build with international donors in recent months. And it could threaten the billions of dollars of humanitarian aid that have helped keep millions of Afghans from famine as the country grapples with a devastating economic collapse.
The news was crushing to the over 1 million high school-aged girls who had been raised in an era of opportunity for women before the Taliban seized power in August — and who had woken up thrilled to be returning to classes Wednesday.
One 15-year-old student in Kabul said the decision had stamped out her last bit of hope that she could achieve her dream of becoming a lawyer.
"Education was the only way to give us some hope in these times of despair, and it was the only right we hoped for, and it has been taken away," said the student, Zahra Rohani.
On Monday (Tuesday NZT), the Ministry of Education had announced that all schools, including girls' high schools, would reopen Wednesday at the start of the spring semester. The following day, a Ministry of Education spokesman released a video congratulating all students on the return to class.
Across the capital, Kabul, many girls had arrived at high schools on Wednesday morning excited to return to the campuses, and some schools did open, at least briefly. But as news spread that the Taliban had reversed their decision, many left in tears.
Mehrin Ekhtiari, 15, said she and her classmates were shocked when a teacher announced the news to the classroom on Wednesday morning.
"My hope was revived after eight months of waiting," she said, adding later that the announcement had "dashed all my dreams".
In recent months, the international community has made girls' education a central condition of foreign aid and any future recognition of the Taliban. Under the Taliban's first rule, from 1996 to 2001, the group barred women and girls from school and most employment.
Aziz-ur-Rahman Rayan, a spokesman for the Ministry of Education, said in a phone interview that Taliban officials had decided on Tuesday not to allow girls above the sixth grade (about 11-12 years old) to return to school yet. He attributed the decision to a lack of a religious uniform for girls and the lack of female teachers for girls, among other issues.
At an hours-long news conference at the Ministry of Education on Wednesday morning to note the start of the spring semester, Taliban officials did not mention the last-minute reversal and did not take questions from journalists present about girls' high schools.
Many principals and teachers said they only received the new instructions from the ministry after students had already arrived for classes Wednesday.
The move came a little more than a week before a pledging conference where the United Nations had hoped donor countries would commit millions of dollars in badly needed aid, as Afghanistan grapples with an economic collapse that has left over half of the population without sufficient food. It is unclear whether donors will be willing to contribute following the Taliban's reversal on the key commitment of girl's education.
"It creates a lot of challenges in terms of how is the world going to engage with them and try to stop Afghans from starving when there's no space to negotiate and convince the Taliban to shave off even the sharpest edges of their rights abuses," said Heather Barr, the associate director of women's rights at Human Rights Watch.
The United Nations and the United States condemned the decision on Wednesday.
"I'm deeply troubled by multiple reports that the Taliban are not allowing girls above grade 6 to return to school," tweeted Ian McCary, the chief of mission for US Embassy Kabul, currently operating out of Doha, Qatar. "This is very disappointing & contradicts many Taliban assurances & statements."
Many Afghan girls had waited for months to hear whether they would be allowed to return to school, after the Taliban seized control of the country. When schools reopened in September for grades 7 through 12, Taliban officials told only male students to report for their studies, saying that girls would be allowed to return after security improved and enough female teachers could be found to keep classes fully segregated by gender.
Later, Taliban officials insisted that Afghan girls and women would be able to go back to school in March, and many Western officials seized on that promise as a deadline that would have repercussions for the Taliban's efforts to eventually secure international recognition and the lifting of at least some sanctions.
In recent months, the Taliban had also come under mounting pressure to permit girls to attend high school from international donors, aid from which has helped keep Afghanistan from plunging further into a humanitarian catastrophe set off by the collapse of the former government and Western sanctions that crippled the country's banking system.
But even as girls' high schools sent students away in Kabul, they were able to return to classes for the start of the spring semester in at least two northern cities, Kunduz and Mazar-i-Sharif, according to teachers and education officials there.
That geographic discrepancy is indicative of the new government's largely erratic policymaking and its struggle to adopt a uniform, nationwide approach to key issues.
As an insurgency over the past two decades, the Taliban operated on a decentralised basis with local leaders empowered to make independent decisions in their provinces. Since seizing power, the Taliban have been reckoning with the need for consistent policies while struggling to tread a delicate line that satisfies their more moderate members, their hardline base and the international community.
For months, Taliban delegations have been meeting with EU, UN and US officials, appealing for funding and recognition. So far, no country has recognised the Taliban's government, and many donors remain skeptical of its promises to meet human rights obligations.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Safiullah Padshah and Christina Goldbaum
Photographs by: Victor J. Blue and Jim Huylebroek
© 2022 THE NEW YORK TIMES
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