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Kabul: More than a year after the closing of girls’ schools, a number of students and women’s rights activists gathered in Kabul to protest this decision and asked the interim government to take action in this regard.
Protesters gathered on Saturday, in front of Maleka Soraya School on the second road of Taimani, Kabul.
They say that more than a year after the Taliban came to power, schools have not been opened for girls and this is a clear violation of human rights.
The main demand of these protesters is the reopening of girls’ schools above the sixth grade.
Meanwhile the school ban tracker shows that more than 400 days have passed since the ban on girls’ education in Afghanistan. The Taliban say they are working on a plan to reopen girl’s secondary and high schools but not clarifying when their plan is finalized.
The ban on girl’s education has caused reactions and disagreement among senior members of the Taliban as well.
“Shir Mohammad Stanekzai”, the political deputy of the Taliban Foreign ministry, said that there is no Islamic justification for closing girls’ schools.
Stanekzai added that no one has a religious reason to close girls’ schools and schools should be opened to all as soon as possible.
On the other hand, Markus Potzel, head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, claimed in a statement that Taliban leader does not allow the reopening of girls’ schools.
During his speech at the UN Security Council he said “Afghanistan has seen positive and negative events in the past few months, and the restrictions on women’s rights show that the Taliban is indifferent to the situation of half of the population and that they are even willing to take the risk of international isolation.”
This senior UN official in Afghanistan said: “Many in the Taliban body have a different opinion than the leader of this group regarding the reopening of girls’ schools, but they are unable to take action in this regard.”
Recently, Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Taliban, said during a speech in Turkey that girls’ schools will be reopened in Afghanistan soon.
