The Taliban Ministry of Education will now allow girls from grade six and below to continue their schooling.
The Taliban’s education ministry in a letter asked officials to open schools and education centres to girls below the sixth grade.
The move comes weeks after Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban government cracked down on women’s education and the Ministry of Higher Education issued an indefinite ban on university education for women in Afghanistan, which was condemned by the international community, including Muslim-majority countries.
Educational crisis in Taliban ruled government
Although the Taliban initially promised a more moderate rule that respected the rights of women and minorities, they have largely enforced their strict interpretation of Islamic law since taking control of the country in August 2021. The Taliban government has suspended university education for all female students in Afghanistan, the latest step in its brutal crackdown on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women.
They banned girls from attending secondary schools and grammar schools, prohibited women from most professions and ordered them to be clothed from head to toe in public. Women were also banned from parks and gymnasiums and were not allowed to travel without a male relative.
The Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 when the US-led invasion ousted the group from power, have always treated women as second-class citizens, subjecting them to violence, forced marriages and an almost invisible presence in the country.
After the Taliban took power in Afghanistan last year, they tried to project a more moderate image to win international support.After overthrowing the government, the Taliban regime implemented a system of gender apartheid, effectively putting Afghan women under house arrest. Women were denied all human rights under Taliban rule, including the right to work, visibility, education, a voice, health – care, and mobility.
However, despite multiple promises to the global community that they would secure the rights of women and girls, the Taliban has done the opposite, systematically restricting their rights and freedoms.
Elimination of Women Rights
Women in Afghanistan are no longer allowed to work in most sectors, must travel with a male guardian, and are obligated to cover their faces in public.
They have also limited girls’ education and barred women from certain jobs, robbing them of rights they have fought for tirelessly over the past two decades.
Human Rights Watch described the move as a “shameful decision” that demonstrates the Taliban’s disregard for “the fundamental rights of Afghans.”
Foreign entities, including the United States, have said that before formally recognizing the Taliban-run government, which is also sanctioned, policies on women’s education must change.
G7 foreign ministers urged the Taliban to lift the ban, warning that “gender oppression may amount to a crime committed against humanity.” “Taliban purpose of this policy to completely remove women from public life will have repercussions for how our nations engage with the Taliban,” the ministers warned.
However, Nida Mohammad Nadim, the Taliban government’s minister of higher education, attempted to defend the ban on women’s education, claiming that it was implemented to prevent gender mixing in academic institutions and because he chooses to believe some subjects being taught violate Islamic principles. Foreigners, according to Nadim, should stop meddling in Afghanistan’s internal affairs.
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