In Afghanistan, the new semester started this week. However, the Taliban, an Islamist force at the helm, has only allowed girls to attend elementary schools, and the international community is increasingly criticizing them for ending discriminatory treatments.
Afghanistan welcomed the new year on the 21st according to the traditional calendar, and the new school year began this week in schools around the country.
However, since August, when the Islamist Taliban was restored, girls have not been allowed to attend junior high and high schools, and in December last year, they stopped educating women at universities, so girls are currently only allowed to attend elementary schools in most areas.
A 13-year-old woman in the capital Kabul said, "Schools are not reopening, there is no hope, and we do not know what will happen in the future, and I want the Taliban to allow girls to go to school like boys."
In addition, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has been criticized by the international community for an end to discriminatory policies against women, such as stating on social media that "more than 100 million girls will be banned from classes in the new school year."
A Taliban official told NHK that although there are calls for the resumption of girls' education in some parts of the Taliban, conservative officials do not approve of it, and there is no prospect of changing the situation.