Girls’ education is a women’s rights issue

The ban on girls’ access to secondary education in Afghanistan, which has been described as ‘a profound disappointment’, could portend further curbs on women’s rights by the ruling Taliban.

Naureen Hossain

---

THE late-night reversal of a decision by Taliban authorities in Afghanistan to allow girls from grades 7 to 12 to return to school has been met with distress from within the country and internationally – and fear that it could herald further restrictions.

        A Taliban spokesperson from the Ministry of Education on 23 March made the announcement reversing an earlier decision that all students would be expected to return to school, including girls.

Local media in Afghanistan reported protests, including one held outside the Ministry of Education building.

        At least 87% of the population favour girls’ education across all levels, even among those who may say they would not expect the girls in their family to attend school but would not oppose government schooling otherwise.

        The abrupt decision has also taken humanitarian organisations by surprise.

        Sam Mort, Chief of Communications for UNICEF Afghanistan, spoke at a press briefing at the United Nations headquarters, revealing that this announcement came late. ‘Among our staff, there was collective disbelief ... and anxiety,’ Mort said, speaking of the reaction of field officers and national staff to the news. ‘We are just as confused as everyone else.’

        The Taliban’s decision has been met with swift condemnation from the international community.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell, in a statement, said the Taliban’s decision was ‘a major setback for girls and their future’ and urged them to ‘honour their commitment to girls’ education without any further delays’.

        Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait, the United Nations’ global fund for children’s education, said: ‘With this announcement, an entire generation of Afghan children and adolescents could be left behind.’

        Sherif said that ‘ensuring that both girls and boys can return to school – including the resumption of adolescent girls’ access to secondary education – is key for the development of the country.’

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the Taliban’s decision was ‘a profound disappointment and deeply damaging for Afghanistan’.

        UN agencies, their partners and other humanitarian organisations have been involved in discussions with the Taliban since their rise to power last August. Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis leaves 24.4 million people – or more than half the population – in dire need of aid and protection. Both sides have been expected to negotiate the involvement of humanitarian organisations and donors in their capacity to provide the necessary services and protections.

        The Taliban have expressed their readiness to comply with international organisations in their bid for formal legitimacy. But they have also asserted their code for governance, which they claim would be according to Islamic law and Afghan culture, something humanitarian organisations with education programmes are working to adapt.

        This is the same reasoning that senior members of the Taliban have used to justify the ban on secondary education for girls.

        Where was this concern for a standardised curriculum aligning with Islamic law and Afghan culture when boys returned to secondary school in September?

        The right to education has been an oft-discussed, critical human rights issue for Afghanistan, especially when it comes to how, or even if, this right is extended to girls. This concern had already been compounded by the forced closure of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted all school-going children and adolescents. While alternative learning pathways, including community-based education centres based in rural and remote provinces for children to attend, have been available, girls’ education in government schools remained a lingering question.

        The Taliban’s rise to power raised the fear that the right to education would be denied to girls indefinitely, if not permanently. It would only signal increasing measures to control women’s rights and mobility beyond the domestic sphere.

        The last-minute decision may likely indicate infighting between factions that are divided on the issue of girls’ education.

        As Heather Barr, Associate Director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, notes, there are factions that recognise the steps the Taliban must take to receive the funding and legitimacy they want from the international community, and there are hardliner members who believe that girls beyond puberty should not be allowed out for their studies.

        Given their handling of the issue, it is only indicative of how unprepared the Taliban are to govern and provide the necessary services to a population where over half relies on international humanitarian aid.

Barr also notes that their decision speaks to the ingrained beliefs that view women through a misogynistic and reductive lens. She expresses concern that the Taliban’s decision does not bode well for the state of human rights in the country and may ‘herald a further crackdown, of girls and women, and human rights generally’.

        The decision to revoke girls’ access to secondary school education is only one among several examples of recent actions taken by the Taliban to police women’s movements across the country, with stricter, more frequent enforcement occurring in provinces outside the capital.

        ‘We’ve been seeing more and more different restrictions put in place, including new rules on women’s freedom of movement and them being blocked from travelling without a mahram overseas, being blocked from travelling ... over certain distances,’ says Barr. ‘Taxi drivers being told that women need to wear a hijab before they are allowed to drive them.’

        When it comes to girls’ education, if the ban on girls’ secondary education continues, this could escalate to the restriction of access to tertiary education for girls and women in the country.

What is harrowing is that even as public pressure and condemnation come from both sides, the Taliban continue to act upon principles which even they cannot agree on.

        International leaders and experts have reiterated that education for all can only guarantee that developing or impoverished countries can walk down a path of peace and prosperity.

For the girls and women of Afghanistan, they may not get to walk down that path without a chaperone. – IPS                              

*Third World Resurgence No. 350, 2022, pp 46-47