Female Students in Baghlan Want Access to Education
Twelfth graders at girls’ schools in Baghlan province are worried about their uncertain future, saying that their concerns have multiplied as the school year draws to a close.
Kawsar, a 12th-grade student at a public school in Baghlan, says the school year is over, but the gates of the schools have not been opened. “I call on the Taliban-led government not to destroy the girls’ aspirations and to take serious action in educating the girls,” she added. Kawsar is worried about the Kankor examination (entrance test), considering that she has not been able to go to school for several months. Kawsar is asking the Taliban to allow them to attend the exam.
Female students consider education critical for girls, saying that educated women bring out good and productive children to society. Salima, another student, says that women make up half of society and that some of the things that men cannot do, women can do. Salima does not see the progress and development of a society without the role and contribution of women. She calls on the Taliban government to reopen the gates of schools to them.
Meanwhile, families say that they are more concerned about the mental health of their children. Hasibullah Habibi, whose daughter has dropped out of school, told Hasht-e Subh that his young daughter could go to school, but his eldest daughter could not go to school. Habibi added: “My eldest daughter is very concerned and, she asks me why her right to education has been denied. I have no answer to her words and, this situation is ending very hard for me.”
Meanwhile, local Taliban officials in Baghlan say the reason for closing the doors of schools to secondary school and high school girls is the lack of female teachers and separate classes. However, girls’ schools in Baghlan, which have separate classes and female teachers, are also closed to female students above the sixth grade.
Wajma Mehrzad is the director of a girls’ school in Baghlan province. Ms. Mehrzad said that from the fourth grade onwards, there are no boys’ classes and all of them are for girls. “If the Taliban government allows us to teach, we are ready to teach our students from the seventh to the twelfth grade in the cold winter, because our twelfth grade is facing the entrance exam,” she added.
Abdul Raqib Haqqani, the head of education in Baghlan province, assured that the entrance exams for female students, even though schools are closed, adding that they are trying to make the entrance exam more transparent for students. However, despite the repeated demands and protests of female students, the doors of girls’ schools are still closed. With the rise of the Taliban, the doors of girls ‘and boys’ schools were closed, but after about forty days, the boys ‘and girls’ schools below the sixth grade were reactivated. Since then, however, girls in high school have not been able to go to school.