| | | Until last year, 14-year-old Samira had hardly ever missed a day of school. Come rain or snow, she attended every class; even during the height of the war in Afghanistan, amid the increasingly common explosions and gunfire in her village in Kandahar province. Helping her — and her three sisters — do that was her father, Basir Ahmad. It isn’t easy raising four girls — the youngest is seven, and Samira is the eldest — in Afghanistan, a country wrecked by years of conflict and extremism, he told OZY. For years, the 35-year-old argued with more conservative forces in the deeply patriarchal society to ensure that his daughters could go to school. And on days when wartime fighting was particularly intense, Ahmad would personally take them to school and bring them back after classes. “The education of my daughters has always been my priority,” he explained, adding that he hoped his daughters would grow up to serve the community. | | [Taliban's] refusal to restart classes impacts over 2.5 million girls who previously attended secondary schooling. - UNICEF | | But the collapse of the Afghan government last year paved the way for the Taliban to seize control of the country. The militant group claimed its victory had ended the country’s long war. Yet in reality, it has given birth to myriad struggles, new and old. In particular, the Taliban, known for restricting freedoms and rights of women, closed down schools for girls over grade 6. “My two oldest daughters are in grade 7 and 8, and they have not been allowed to go back [to] school for over a year,” Ahmad said, adding that, as the situation in his district deteriorated, schools for younger girls were also closed down, forcing all his daughters to put a pause on their education. “Most of the days now, they cry over their future. Their mental health has been affected; they have anxiety and stress. It breaks my heart.” Ahmad’s family isn’t alone. Even though female education rates even prior to the Taliban were abysmal, their refusal to restart classes impacts over 2.5 million girls who previously attended secondary schooling, UNICEF stated in a recent report. And in a country where the barriers of history, conflict and gender make the pursuit of an education so hard for girls, the Taliban’s disruption could be permanent for many. “Close to half are unlikely to return should school reopen today,” the UNICEF report warned. |
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| | | | | | While the Taliban have not provided satisfactory reasons for the closure, they have cited excuses — from the absence of a “safe environment” for the girls to placing the blame on Afghan society for not supporting girls’ education. More and more Afghans are willing to call the group’s bluff. “Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, I have traveled to 24 of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, and met with thousands of locals — tribal elders, religious leaders, youths, in over 100 districts,” Matiullah Wesa, founder of Penpath, an Afghan NGO working on education advocacy, told OZY. “And every one of them has told me they want girls’ education.” Over the years, Penpath has operated several education programs, including mobile schools and mobile libraries. However, this past year, they have also mobilized “secret schools” that operate from homes of volunteers seeking to enable young girls to continue their lessons to some extent. “If parents didn’t support girls’ education, there would have been no reason for us to operate so many of these home schools,” Wesa pointed out. Wesa’s campaigns this year have focused on mobilizing support in different districts to pressure the Taliban regime to reopen schools. “It is true that girls were denied schooling for many years,” Wesa explains. “But parents tell us it was because of the conflict rather than culture. Now that the war with Taliban is over, fathers tell me they want to send our daughters to school,” he added. “They are willing to fight for that.” | | If the schools aren’t opened soon, Afghan parents tell me that it won’t be long before every father and brother [takes to] the streets. - Matiullah Wesa, founder of Afghan NGO, Penpath | | While Afghan women and girls have regularly taken to city streets to demand that schools reopen, few men have joined their struggle until now. Many men were hopeful that the Taliban would honor their earlier commitment to restart schools. Now their patience is wearing thin. “If the schools aren’t opened soon, Afghan parents tell me that it won’t be long before every father and brother [takes to] the streets,” Wesa said. “For those who have the resources, they say they will leave the country to ensure their daughters are educated. This will be a loss for Afghanistan.” Locals in many provinces are also defying the Taliban ban by reopening schools. Several schools in parts of Balkh province in the north are operating despite restrictions, and more recently in Paktia, an improvised province severely impacted by war, schools were briefly opened only to be forced to close soon after. Disgruntled fathers joined in the protests demanding the reopening of schools. |
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| | | | | | | | Ahmad also joined in recent demonstrations in a district of Kandahar. Fathers and brothers had traveled from across remote villages to join and raise their voices for their daughters and sisters. “As the father of these strong, passionate girls, but also as a brother and fellow Afghan, if I don’t stand up with these girls, I will be responsible for crushing their hopes, struggles and ambition,” he said. “This is our collective responsibility.” | | As the father of these strong, passionate girls, but also as a brother and fellow Afghan, if I don’t stand up with these girls, I will be responsible for crushing their hopes, struggles and ambition. - Basir Ahmad | | He remains hopeful for his daughters, and already has a profession in mind for them: There are no doctors in either their village or neighboring villages, and patients have to travel to cities or even to neighboring Pakistan for treatment, he said. “It is my dream to see my daughters become doctors and treat women in our village,” he said. |
| | His daughters have ambitious plans of their own — they’re contemplating careers in medicine, but also as teachers. There’s even an aspiring pilot in the house. | | Please don’t be silent. The future of our country depends on it. - Bashir Ahmad | | Afghan men, Wesa said, must join in peaceful demonstrations in their districts and villages to pressure the Taliban into reopening schools. “If there are threats and challenges [from the Taliban], we must accept it because our sisters need us to join them to raise their voices for their basic Islamic right to education,” he said. “Please don’t be silent,” he added. “The future of our country depends on it.” |
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