In what comes to a big relief for Afghan girls, the Taliban, Afghanistan’s de facto authority, said they will open all schools—both for boys and girls—from next week in the country. So far, girls between classes 6 to 12 have not been allowed to attend classes. 

"All schools are going to open to all boys and girls," Aziz Ahmad Rayan, a spokesman for the Ministry of Education, was quoted as saying by Reuters. He, however, clarified that girls students will be taught separately from boys.

The ultra-conservative hardline Islamist group, which came to power in August last year, was under tremendous pressure from the international community to restore girls' right to education and work. In the last seven months, girls, up to class 6 and those in universities, have been allowed to attend classes in a phased manner.

Despite the growing pressure, the group continued to keep a large section of girls out of classes, claiming that they were preparing a safe and secure environment to resume classes. 

Only female teachers and older male teachers will be allowed to teach girls in school. This, however, created another challenge as most teachers in the country are male. Furthermore, Afghanistan has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world. 

 In the last two decades, during the rule of  the West-backed democratic government, the status of the education sector improved greatly, covering even rural regions which were earlier out of reach. However, much of this progress was compromised when the Taliban came back to power, restricting hard-earned education rights for women. 

No country has yet recognized the Taliban government and conditioned it with the Taliban’s efforts to respect human rights, educational and work rights for women. Thousands of women, earlier employed in ministries and government departments were told not to return to work soon after the regime change. 

(SAM)