RASC News Agency: The Taliban, which initiated the academic year 2023 by depriving millions of Afghanistani girls of education, concluded this academic year, leaving behind a tragic scenario for Afghanistani schoolgirls. Based on the order of Mullah Hebatullah Akhundzada, the hidden leader of the Taliban, millions of Afghanistani schoolgirls are denied further education after completing the sixth grade. Consequently, several million Afghanistani girls have been deprived of their fundamental right to education and have been confined to their homes under Taliban orders.
Images filled with sorrow and despair depict sixth-grade schoolgirls on the last day of their academic year in Afghanistan. These deprived girls, with tear-filled eyes and hearts laden with sorrow, leave their school classrooms, transforming their aspirations, nurtured through education, into a multitude of disillusionment about an uncertain future. Simultaneous with the conclusion of the academic year 2023, which ended on Thursday, December 7th, under the shadow of the Taliban’s prohibition of girls’ education, citizens of the country share images of schoolgirls on social networks. These images reveal girls embracing each other, shedding tears for the unjust deprivation of their right to continue their education.
Social media users criticize the Taliban’s policies regarding the education of Afghanistani girls, asserting that this group has taken Afghanistani girls hostage and, at the behest of Pakistan, employs them as a political tool against the international community. Meanwhile, educators state that most sixth-grade girls, disillusioned with the uncertain situation, intentionally refrained from participating in the end-of-year exams. Through this act, they aim to repeat the sixth grade next year and continue their education. The Taliban, since taking control of Afghanistan, has prohibited the education of Afghanistani girls beyond the sixth grade and in universities. However, credible sources indicate that many of them have sent their young daughters abroad for education. Currently, these girls are attending universities in Pakistan, Qatar, and other countries Earlier, the RASC news agency, citing reliable sources, reported that a number of girls, including high-ranking members of the group such as Srajuddin Haqqani, are pursuing their education in fields such as medicine, technology, and engineering outside of Afghanistan. They are reportedly studying in universities in Pakistan and Qatar.
It is crucial to note that in over two years of Taliban rule, hundreds of thousands of female students have been prevented from attending schools and universities. According to published UN statistics, the number of girls deprived of education has reached two and a half million. The academic year 2023 has turned into a tragedy for schoolgirls. Just last week, Human Rights Watch reported that the Taliban has removed female teachers from boys’ schools, further exacerbating concerns about the deterioration of education under the Taliban’s administration and the use of unqualified male teachers or even forcing students to attend classes without teachers.
Human Rights Watch continues to express concern about the increase in physical punishment of male students in schools under the control of the Taliban. Alongside the Taliban’s denial of education to girls, boys’ schools under their administration are also on the verge of collapse, leading to the destruction of Afghanistan’s education system.
