• Afghanistan Trip to Kandahar, the cradle of the Taliban movement: "Here women have never removed their burqa"

The displays of outrage have been repeated in Afghanistan after the Taliban decided that only boys would return to secondary classrooms this Saturday after a month closed, while

the students will have to stay at home, in a new gesture by Islamist radicals against the female rights

.

"Last night I did not sleep, all night I was thinking about my daughters. They had been at home for more than a month and anxiously awaited the reopening of the schools. But the (Taliban) government only allowed the boys to resume classes," Sakina told Efe , 38 years old.

Their daughters Hasina, 16, and Adila, 14, have been crying heartbroken since they learned that they will not be able to return to school yet.

For now, only primary school girls have been able to return to their classrooms.

"We are a poor family, we spend a lot of money on the education of our daughters, but now we do not know if they will be able to return to their classes or not," he laments.

Secondary schools

had not reopened their doors since last August 15, when the previous Afghan government collapsed

with the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban, who excuse themselves by saying that they are preparing a suitable environment for girls.

For many, this decision is reminiscent of the one taken during the previous Taliban regime between 1996 and 2001, when under the same pretext they kept the girls locked up in their homes, ensuring that they would return to school when the security situation improved.

However, Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi has insisted that the opening of the girls' schools will take place "in time", and has said that there is no need to worry.

"The authorities are working on a guide, on the separation of the classrooms, and on the availability of teachers and transportation for the girls. The result will be shared with the nation," the spokesperson told Efe.

Two decades of girls' education

Human rights activists hope that the Taliban will not repeat their past practices, with an Afghan society that has changed a lot over the past two decades, in addition to their need to earn global recognition.

"We do not know what the Taliban are doing and what their plan is, but we ask them to remain committed to their promises to respect women's rights," Marghalara Khara, director of Social Affairs of the dissolved

Ministry of Women,

told EFE.

now replaced by the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice

, already in force in the first five-year Taliban.

Khara remarks that the situation now "is completely different from that of the 1990s," and also thanks to "national and international pressure" he does not believe that the Taliban are going to "ignore half the Afghan population and isolate it."

It also underlines that

secondary schools were already separated by gender and the majority of teachers in female classrooms were women

, so there is no reason to delay the return of female students to schools.

"There is nothing against Islam or anti-Islamic in girls' schools and other bodies related to women, I do not know what the Taliban want to do, they should clearly tell the nation what they want to do with the women of this country," he said.

Since the fall of the Taliban regime with the US invasion in 2001, the situation for women has changed dramatically in much of Afghanistan, with

a percentage of girls in schools dropping from zero to 39% in recent years

, among those around 10 million students enrolled, according to official data.

Former Deputy Minister of Education Ghulam Jailani Humayoon has also insisted that female education is a "fundamental right (and) is not only an international principle, but is also part of the teachings of Islam."

"The ban on girls' education will not only affect the educational system, but will also seriously affect the spirit and morals of girls," Humayoon told Efe, which is why, he added, it is "the responsibility" of the Taliban government to avoid for this to happen.

In the Doha agreement, signed in February 2020 between the United States and the Taliban, which set a date for the departure of US troops from Afghanistan,

the radical group pledged to respect human rights in the country, especially those of women. women

, but their actions say otherwise.

There are no women in the interim government announced by the Taliban on September 7, many women have not yet been able to return to their jobs, women's protests were violently dispersed, and on Friday they replaced the Ministry for Women's Affairs, for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which will be in charge of the rigid implementation of Islamic norms.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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