Girls aged 12 or older will not be able to sing in front of men. Britain has helped 300,000 girls go to school in the past six years with their funded aid. Photo / AP
Girls aged 12 or older will not be able to sing in front of men. Britain has helped 300,000 girls go to school in the past six years with their funded aid. Photo / AP
The British government has said it is urgently investigating whether the Afghan government has banned girls from singing in schools funded by UK aid.
An education ministry decree that schoolgirls over the age of 12 should be banned from public singing has provoked an outcry and was criticised as the latest sign Afghanistan is bowing to conservative hardliners.
The order by the Afghan government stated that teenage schoolgirl choirs could only perform to purely female audiences and could not be trained by male tutors.
Britain has poured tens of millions into education and government salaries in the past two decades, helping 300,000 girls go to school in the past six years.
"We are urgently seeking clarification from the Afghan Ministry of Education on these reports, and any potential implications for UK-funded education work," a spokesman for the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office said.
Women's rights activists denounced the move, which came three months after the same ministry called for all young children to be taught at their local mosque as a plan to strengthen Islamic identity.
The singing ban came amid fear among many Afghan women that the hard-won gains in their freedoms of the past two decades could be lost in a peace settlement with the Taliban.
Helen Clark in Afghanistan with World Vision. Photo / File
The nationwide decision was disclosed in a leaked letter from Kabul's director of education telling "all public, private and supplementary schools to ban schoolgirls 12 and older from performing in music choirs in any ceremony and public programmes".
"In case schools do not follow the order, the school principals will be punished," wrote Ahmad Zamir Kawara.
As the decision was widely condemned, the ministry claimed it had been made to prevent students being overburdened with work and to allow them time to catch up on studies that were neglected over the pandemic.
The Taliban's resurgence has raised fears the militants intend to demand the re-imposition of repressive policies from their 1990s regime as part of any power-sharing deal with the beleaguered government. Women were denied education and were not allowed to work outside the home.
The militants claim they have changed and have vowed to protect women's rights in an Islamic framework. Yet aid workers warn that as the militants gain sway in parts of the country, they are ending projects aimed at helping empower women.
There are also fears the prospect of upcoming negotiations has emboldened conservatives within the government who want to roll back what they deem to be Western-imposed values.
The acting education minister, Rangina Hamidi, has yet to be endorsed by parliament and she has been accused of courting conservatives to win support.
"Sending school children to mosques did not work, now she wants to ban teenage girls from singing," said Attia Mehraban, an education activist.
"We are against the return of the Taliban over such issues. If you want to build up an Islamic emirate before the Taliban, it is better off to wait and let the Taliban do it, rather than you."
Ahmad Sarmast, founder and director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, said: "Access to music and joining choirs is one of the basic human rights. No discrimination and prejudice can stop girls from joining choirs and having access to training for this high value art."
Kawara later tried to clarify the reason for the ban. He said: "We received complaints from students, parents and education activists, elders and school associations that students must be busy with their studies. Students should prioritise their studies."
The education ministry then went further, saying it wanted to propose a ban on musical choirs, for boys or girls.
Najiba Arian, spokeswoman for the ministry, said: "In this new academic year, the education ministry is working on a guideline that will ban all boys and girls—elementary and high school students—from performing in ceremonials and public programmes so that they will be focused on their studies."
