Taliban indicate girls will be able to return to school

Education Ministry has raised hopes that girls will be able to return to education this week

Afghan girls in a Kabul primary school class on March 27, 2021, before the return of the Taliban. AP

Schools for all students will open this week, Afghanistan’s Taliban-run Education Ministry announced on Monday in the clearest sign yet that girls will be allowed back in school.

Girls have been denied education beyond Grade 6 since the Taliban swept back into power last August.

The international community has been relentless in urging Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to allow girls to return to school.

This year, the new rulers opened up universities for women, although classes are gender segregated.

They also promised girls would be allowed to return to classes in all grades after the Afghan new year, which was being celebrated on Monday.

The ministry said classes would start on Wednesday.

It did not specifically to girls but says: “The education ministry assures the nation it is committed to the right to education of all its citizens.”

The ministry is also “working hard to eliminate all kinds of discrimination". without elaborating. It urges all Afghans to send their children to schools or madrassas, which are religious educational facilities.

The Taliban rulers have not imposed restriction on the types of courses that women attending university can take. But music, which had previously been taught, is no longer available.

While the Taliban have not banned music and musicians have occasionally appeared on local TV, music is frowned on by the hard-line rulers.

When they last ruled, music was banned, girls were denied education and women were not allowed to work and were required to wear the all-covering burqa.

Taliban soldiers stand guard as women carry placards during a rally in Kabul, Afghanistan. All photos: EPA

Afghan women activists demand food, jobs and education for girls during a protest in Kabul.

Afghan women demonstrate during a rally in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The Taliban have banned women from work and girls from secondary schools. EPA

Women carry placards during a rally in Kabul.

Afghan women have intensified their anti-Taliban protests despite the group's harsh crackdown on demonstrations.

In the last three months of their rule, the Taliban have suppressed several women's protests in Kabul and other Afghan provinces.

The Taliban have used violence against protesters, including using pepper spray.

The Taliban were removed in 2001.

After sweeping back into power last August, a nervous international community watched as Taliban sent women home from work and closed public universities in all but 10 provinces.

They allowed only boys to attend school beyond Grade 7.

The Taliban have not reimposed the burqa, though women are required to wear the hijab, which can be any covering including a large shawl provided the head is covered.

The Taliban rulers have also allowed women back to work in the health and education ministries and at Kabul’s international airport, where they are at passport control and customs.

They have also returned to work in the private sector and for non-government aid organisations.

But in other ministries women are not back on the job.

The World Food Programme will be stepping up its school meals scheme and will offer cash assistance to high school girls to encourage them to stay in school.