As the summer season arrives, so do the summer exams. Students, with fear and apprehension, enter the classrooms and answer the easy and hard questions.
The real question is: Is this season the same for all school students—both boys and girls?
In the First Section of Behsud district, Maidan Wardak province, the school exams from the first to sixth grades were held without the presence of female students, as local sources confirmed by sending pictures.
While most schools in Afghanistan allow female students up to the 6th grade to participate, Dasht-e-Atman High School in the First Section of Behsud district has taken the exams without the presence of even a single female student.
Depriving half of Afghanistan’s poorly educated population by the Taliban, who are indeed the enemies of education, will have irreparable consequences for future generations.
Mr. Jalil Qaderi, who teaches in one of the private schools in Kabul, considers this action of the Taliban as assaulting the roots of science.
“You cannot expect anything from the Taliban but this action.” Said Teacher Qaderi. “In their first term, they left today’s generation illiterate by not allowing them to go to school and universities. Same as in the past, now girls and women are prevented from going to school and universities, creating a dark future for Afghanistan.”
Majeed Burhani, a university lecturer in the political science faculty, said: “Afghanistan women have always been the victims of religious extremism. During the Afghan-Soviet War and the civil war between the Mujahideen, women were deprived of their right to live. And worst of all, the Taliban came and created terror. Even now, this hardline militant group is not ashamed of any inhuman savagery. The Taliban are multifaceted in their calls. But unfortunately, the most ignorant of them are in the ARG—the previous presidential palace. And we’ll see that the harshness towards girls and women will be increasing on a daily basis. If the international community does not take any practical action, the future will be intolerable for our girls in every possible way.”
The Taliban, as soon as they swept back to power in August 2021, banned education for girls beyond sixth grade.
Author: Mohammed Azar Azarman
