In July, the Taliban introduced a gathering of handpicked clerics to determine on the destiny of the training ban. However solely two clerics got here in assist of the women’ training. Since then, the Taliban has not made any progress on whether or not they’re prepared to compromise
“Initially, we have been hopeful that they’d reopen colleges, however with the passage of time, we observed that, no, they’re doing one thing else. They only challenge anti-women verdicts after every day,” Nazhand mentioned. “I do not assume that they’re prepared to reopen colleges, the Taliban haven’t any downside with ladies’ colleges, however they wish to exploit them politically. They wish to proceed their ruling on society by banning ladies colleges. It’s of their curiosity to impose restrictions on ladies as a result of they cannot do it on males.”
After the US military intervention of Afghanistan in late 2001 that ousted the Taliban from energy, the war-torn nation witnessed a sequence of socioeconomic reforms and rebuilding applications. The post-Taliban constitution, which was ratified in 2004, expanded ladies’s rights to go to highschool, vote, work, serve in civic establishments, and protest. By 2009, ladies have been working for president for the primary time within the nation’s historical past.
However the 4 many years of warfare and hostility inflicted large hurt to Afghanistan’s fundamental infrastructures, together with to the nation’s academic belongings.
And even earlier than the Taliban seized energy on Aug. 15 final 12 months, a report by UNICEF discovered that Afghanistan had struggled with greater than 4.2 million youngsters out of college, 60% of whom have been ladies. Though the potential prices of not educating girls and boys alike are excessive when it comes to misplaced earnings, not educating ladies is particularly pricey due to the connection between academic attainment and pupil delaying marriage and childbearing, taking part within the workforce, making selections about their very own future, and investing extra within the well being and training of their very own youngsters later in life. The evaluation signifies that Afghanistan shall be unable to regain the GDP misplaced in the course of the transition and attain its true potential productiveness with out fulfilling ladies’ rights to entry and full secondary faculty training. UNICEF additionally estimated that If the present cohort of three million ladies have been capable of full their secondary training and take part within the job market, it will contribute no less than $5.4 billion to Afghanistan’s financial system.
A report by Amnesty International additionally says that the Taliban have prevented ladies throughout Afghanistan from working.
“Most ladies authorities staff have been instructed to remain dwelling, excluding these working in sure sectors resembling well being and training,” the report states. “Within the non-public sector, many ladies have been dismissed from high-level positions. The Taliban’s coverage seems to be that they may enable solely ladies who can’t be changed by males to maintain working. Girls who’ve continued working instructed Amnesty Worldwide that they’re discovering it extraordinarily tough within the face of Taliban restrictions on their clothes and conduct, such because the requirement for girls docs to keep away from treating male sufferers or interacting with male colleagues.”
“Twenty years in the past, when the Taliban took management of Afghanistan, the very first thing they did was a ban on ladies’s entry to training,” Nazhand mentioned. “The Taliban stored a lot of ladies in isolation and as an illiterate inhabitants; the end result was a paralyzed and backward society. We should not neglect that the Taliban are nonetheless affected by the novel and repressive mindset that they’d maintain 20 years in the past. We should not stay the ladies that we have been 20 years in the past, and we is not going to stay silent.”
Safety threats and acts of terrorism have additionally been a serious concern to the scholars in Afghanistan. In late October, a suicide bomber attacked a category filled with over 500 college students in west Kabul, killing no less than 54 faculty graduates — amongst them have been 54 young girls. The assault marked the second lethal assault on training facilities within the nation for the reason that Taliban had taken over energy.
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