Southern Afghanistan Taliban new rule No education to Girls.
According to officials, Afghan authorities are closing education centres and institutes backed by non-governmental organisations in the south until further notice. The centres are largely for girls not allowed to attend school after the sixth grade.
The Education Ministry has ordered that education centres and institutes in the Taliban heartland regions of Helmand and Kandahar be closed while a committee analyses their operations.
It did not provide a rationale for the restrictions, and a spokeswoman for the ministry was not immediately available for comment.
Mutawakil Ahmad, a spokesperson for the Kandahar education department, stated that education centres’ activities had been halted until further notice. “The decision was made in response to people’s complaints,” Ahmad stated without going into detail.
Despite initial promises of a more moderate reign than during their previous tenure in power in the 1990s, the Taliban have enforced harsh restrictions since regaining control in 2021, as US and NATO soldiers withdrew from Afghanistan after two decades of war.
The restriction on female education extends to universities. Women are prohibited from entering public places, including parks, and working in most occupations.
Afghan women were forbidden from working at national and local NGOs last year, purportedly because they were not properly wearing the hijab or Islamic headscarf, and a gender segregation rule was not observed. The United Nations is also included in this sequence.
At least two NGO officials in Helmand stated they were aware of the instruction from the Education Ministry. They requested anonymity since they were not authorised to speak to the media.
According to one source, the NGO operated in nine areas, giving approximately 650 sessions with 20 to 30 students in each class. He stated that both girls and boys attend the sessions, predominantly girls because they cannot attend school.
Most programmes are funded by UNICEF, and the United Nations Children’s Fund, with local non-governmental organisations working as subcontractors or project implementers. Male and female teachers have separate classes.
The person went on to say that ministry employees oversee all of their actions.
There was no immediate response from UNICEF in Afghanistan.
According to a Kandahar education official, several NGOs are involved in the education sector and provide education for girls.
However, he stated that there is a need to assess their activities because there is no responsibility over their spending, there are worries about corruption, and there are suspicions that centres and institutes are ghost schools.
Because he was not licenced to speak to the media, the official, a district director of education, spoke on the condition of anonymity.
It was unclear how many centres and institutions were closed or how many students were affected by the directive in the two provinces.
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