An Afghan student studying online from her home in Kabul (social media)

Kabul -

About 900 days have passed since 80% of girls of school age were deprived of education beyond the primary level in Afghanistan, equivalent to 3.7 million people, by a decision of the leader of the Taliban movement, Sheikh Hibatullah Akhundzada.

Nearly 30% of girls have not set foot in primary school since the Taliban came to power in 2021.

This is not the first time that girls' schools have been closed in the country, but the phenomenon has been repeated four times over the past century, as the movement closed girls' and boys' schools during its initial rule of Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.

After seizing power for the second time in 2021, girls were deprived of their right to education.

Both times, the ban on their education was imposed as a temporary measure, but the Taliban did not lift the ban during their first rule.

Afghan female students in front of Kabul University and they are not allowed to enter (social media)

isolation

Education experts in Afghanistan believe that if the movement does not adhere to its promises to reopen secondary schools and universities, this means that it does not intend to do so, so that Afghanistan will be the only country out of more than 50 Islamic countries in which girls are deprived of education.

University professor Abdul Rahim Jalali told Al Jazeera Net, “It is unfortunate that the Taliban movement, based on its own interpretation of the legal rulings, closed girls’ schools for the second time, and its decision has no religious or cultural basis, and its position on women in general leads to their isolation locally and internationally, and the Afghan people are Who pays the price?

Political analysts believe that the issue of closing schools and universities in Afghanistan has become international and that many government officials want to resume studies in middle and high schools and universities, but the Taliban leader is adamant in his position and does not allow anyone - regardless of his status and role in the movement - to discuss the matter.

Former Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education, Ibrahim Shinwari, told Al Jazeera Net that, given the sensitivity of the issue of women in Afghan society, previous governments decided - decades ago - to separate the sexes in public and private schools, so that girls go directly after primary school to girls’ schools and wear a special uniform that takes into account Islamic provisions and community traditions. Afghan.

The former agent believes that there is no accurate explanation of what the movement’s leader means by the compatibility of school curricula with Islamic teachings, and the desire to approve a dress code for women in general that suits Sharia and custom.

Education experts report that more than 330,000 Afghan girls graduated last year from primary schools across the country, and instead of continuing their studies, they joined more than 3.7 million girls who were denied enrollment in secondary schools.

Zubaida is an Afghan girl from Kabul studying at an Indian university online from her home (Al Jazeera)

Alternatives

After waiting for two years and more, the girls' families became certain that the Taliban did not intend to open schools and universities, so they were considering leaving Afghanistan in search of schools and educational centers to continue teaching their daughters.

Ahmed Rashid works for a foreign institution, and his daughter graduated last year from a government school. He was hoping to open schools, but he realized that the Afghan government had no intention of doing so, so he decided to leave the country for the sake of his daughter’s future.

He told Al Jazeera Net, "I don't care who rules Afghanistan. We aspire for our children to have the opportunity to get an education in our country. After waiting, we did not see any indication of girls' schools opening, so I decided to go to Turkey and obtained visas with great difficulty. There, another stage of suffering and alienation will begin." Like me, many are thinking about leaving for the sake of their daughters’ future.”

Since girls were banned from formal education in Afghanistan, some Afghan and foreign institutions and educational centers have started a series of online classes, and a number of girls have also been given the opportunity to continue their higher education with a master's degree.

Zubaida Hakimi is an Afghan student who graduated from high school, passed the university entrance exam, and succeeded in the Faculty of Medicine at Paktia University, but the Afghan government’s decision prevented her from continuing her studies, so she resorted to registering herself at an Indian university, and is currently studying online.

Hakimi explained to Al Jazeera Net, "I submitted my papers to the university in India, and I chose computer science because we cannot work outside the home due to the Taliban's decision, and I wanted to learn programming and graphics so that I could find work online from home in the future."

Zubaida adds that online education is the only opportunity currently available to her. “I may face challenges. When the online class starts, we face the problem of the lack of electricity at home and the poor quality of the Internet throughput. There is no other option, and I must continue learning remotely.”

Limited opportunity

Officials of online educational institutions report that they are trying to reach an agreement with a number of foreign universities, including the American University in Qatar, to accept female students who graduated from these institutions to continue their higher education.

Hamida Karimi, head of the Kawthar Academy, told Al Jazeera Net that the number of girls studying with them via the Internet reaches 3,500 students, and that the academy recorded about 9,000 lessons in video form, each lasting between 14 and 17 minutes.

After the Corona pandemic (Covid-19), online education has become a method in several developed countries, but this method is not available in Afghanistan, and education experts wonder about the effectiveness and efficiency of this method in the current situation, and about the possibility of it becoming an alternative to official schools.

According to a 2022 Gallup poll, 25% of Afghan men and 6% of women have access to the Internet, and the share of rural women is only 2%.

Former Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education, Ibrahim Shinwari, believes that the main solution is to reopen schools and universities, due to the absence of electricity and the Internet in some areas of Afghanistan. He wonders, “How do poor families provide their daughters with computers and the Internet? Therefore, the opportunity for online education is very limited and remains just a dream in Afghanistan, but it is nice try".

As for those in charge of schools that offer their lessons online and benefit from previous government curricula, they point out that there is another challenge, which is the fate of documents and certificates that, if not approved by government departments, will mean that girls who graduate from these schools will not be able to enroll in universities in the future.

They add that the Afghan Ministry of Education has no mechanism to deal with schools offering their services online.

The director of the "Cable Online" school, Khadija Nabil, told Al Jazeera Net, "Accrediting the graduation certificate via the Internet represents a great challenge, and we are trying to solve the problem with the official departments. The presence of virtual schools is a situation created by the current circumstances, and I do not know how the Taliban is dealing with it."

Source: Al Jazeera