The Taliban Continues to Ignore Girls Education

A couple of months ago, Afghanistan was thrown into a state of chaos after the Taliban took over the government after the USA troops were retrieved. Recently during an event, the Minister of the Islamic group claimed they needed more time to work on girls’ education. In the Taliban’s first regime in the 2000s, women were mostly victims of its harsh policies and laws, like refusing to let girls go to schools, ordering that all women go out wearing a burka. 

The minister’s response to girls’ education was that it was “cultural appropriation” for girls above grade 6 to attend schools. He laid his argument saying, “In Afghanistan, there is one thing that the Afghans want and then there is another thing that the international community wants. One of the reasons that it didn’t work over the past 20 years, is that it was against the will of the Afghan people”. This is the second excuse from the Taliban after saying security was the first reason. 

Contrary to what the minister believes, Afghan people have been quite receptive to education and want their daughters to be educated, regardless of their cultural differences. 

While the Taliban has been in several negotiation meetings with the U.S. and other western/international bodies, there doesn’t seem to be any noteworthy development yet. 

Currently, the minister for foreign affairs of the Taliban is meeting with officials from the US, EU, Britain. The Minister obliged the U.S to release the country’s assets worth up to $9bn. 

In the previous Afghanistan government, women had access to education and work opportunities, which helped with the country’s development and was one of the government’s major achievements. 

Now, young girls above the 6th grade have been told to stay at home, while their male counterparts continue with their education. Women in every other sector aside from healthcare have also lost their jobs. 

Although the Taliban has promised to allow women to work and girls to go to school, they haven’t exactly said when all these will happen. However, two months later all the promises made by the Taliban regarding women have not been kept. The notorious group has continued to weaponize the education of women and their employment, which is nothing but a violation of the rights of women and girls.

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