RIGHT TO EDUCATION

Taliban divided over girls' education beyond Class 6

Taliban say they were putting in place policies compliant with the "principles of Islamic law and Afghan culture".

In Summary

The World Bank has already suspended four projects in Afghanistan worth $600m (£456m) after the Taliban’s decision to ban girls from returning to secondary and high schools.

Students in a classroom in Afghanistan
Image: BBC/GETTY IMAGES

The Taliban leadership is deeply divided over girls' education beyond Class 6, raising fears of girls education in Afghanistan under the new rule that has largely stripped women of their basic rights.

Recently, the Taliban banned women from flying unaccompanied.

The World Bank has already suspended four projects in Afghanistan worth $600m (£456m) after the Taliban’s decision to ban girls from returning to secondary and high schools.

The projects include initiatives to improve education, health and agriculture in the war-torn country, which is experiencing a humanitarian crisis.

Rights groups say there are deep divisions within the Taliban's Supreme Council of Jurisprudence on whether the girls could be permitted to seek education beyond Class 6.

On March 21, the Taliban said they would lift a seven-month-old de facto ban on girls' education from Class 6 onwards and reopen schools on the first day of Afghanistan's new academic year, local media reported.

However, two days later, the regime while backtracking from its own statement said, they were putting in place policies compliant with the "principles of Islamic law and Afghan culture".

The education ministry is reportedly facing a shortage of teachers, following the exodus of thousands of Afghans, many among them trained teachers, after the Taliban's triumphant march into Kabul last August.

A senior Taliban figure however said the schools would be reopened after a "standardised uniform" for girls was introduced that reflected the Afghan culture, local media reported.

Taliban while allowing public universities to reopen last month made a promise that the girls' schools would restart too. Even though their leadership held meetings and visited hospitals to speak to women doctors and nurses, encouraging them to return to work and continue to serve, still, the regime is said to be grappling with the issue of girls' education and women's participation in public life.

48 per cent of the population in Afghanistan consists of women.

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