Dozens of girls protested in Afghanistan’s Paktia province after Taliban authorities closed their schools days after classes resumed, agencies and local media reported, as an estimated three million secondary school girls have been out of school for more than a year now . The Taliban backtracked on a promise to allow women education and employment opportunities and have since imposed restrictions on women’s rights, bringing back memories of their first term in power between 1996-2001 when women’s education was banned and women were expelled from public life. Late last month, a senior Taliban leader told Al Jazeera that the group was working to create a so-called “safe environment” for girls and women in secondary schools and workplaces, adding that Islam provides women with the right to education, work and entrepreneurship. Earlier this month, four girls’ schools above sixth grade in Gardez, the provincial capital, and one in Shamkani district began operating on the recommendation of tribal elders and school principals, but without official permission from the Taliban’s Ministry of Education. When students in Gardez went to classes on Saturday, they were told to go home, a women’s rights activist and resident told AFP. “This morning, when the girls were not allowed to enter the schools, we held a protest,” Yasmin, an activist and organizer of the rally, told the news agency by phone. Afghan women and girls protest in front of the Ministry of Education in Kabul in March [File: Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP] Images on social media and local media, including TOLO news, show the girls dressed in their school uniforms – some in head-to-toe burqas, others in school uniforms and white headscarves – protesting in the center of Gardez to protest the closure. “Why did you close our schools? Why are you playing with our feelings?’ A girl can be heard saying through tears in one of the videos. Two residents of the city also confirmed the protest, which reporters were not allowed to cover. “The students protested peacefully, but the gathering was soon broken up by security forces,” a Gardez resident who asked not to be named told AFP. Officials say the ban is just a “technical issue” and classes will resume once a curriculum based on Islamic rules is established. A year after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, some public schools are still operating in parts of the country after pressure from local leaders and families. However, they remain closed in most provinces, including the capital Kabul, as well as Kandahar. The Taliban have also imposed restrictions on the women’s movement and require them to cover head to toe in public. In March, they closed all girls’ secondary schools hours after reopening them for the first time under their rule. About three million girls are currently barred from receiving secondary education in Afghanistan, according to UNICEF. Since returning to power, the Taliban have struggled to govern as they remain diplomatically isolated. The West’s freezing of billions of dollars worth of Afghan funds and the country’s exclusion from global financial institutions have largely contributed to the near-collapse of the country’s aid-dependent economy. More than half of Afghanistan’s 39 million people need humanitarian aid and six million are at risk of starvation, according to the UN.
