New school year in Afghanistan without girls in secondary schools

“It is deeply disappointing that the de facto authorities in Afghanistan are once again barring girls from secondary education,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russel said on Tuesday.

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai wrote on Twitter on the eve of the new school year that girls’ education is important for the country’s development. In Afghanistan, the closure of girls’ schools has met with much criticism. Again and again women protest against the existing regulation. The organization Save the Children pointed out that banning school education increases the risk of violence and early marriage. “The girls in Afghanistan want to help shape the future of their country and the country needs them,” said the Managing Director of Save the Children Germany, Florian Westphal. “During my visit there, I met highly motivated students who are now completely hopeless because they are not allowed to learn a trade.”

In Afghanistan, the new year officially began on Tuesday with the Persian New Year festival Norus, and with it the new school year. Schools for girls from the seventh grade upwards have been closed since the Taliban took power in August 2021. The Taliban had already controlled large parts of the country before the takeover. Experts blame the high level of corruption among the old, political elite and among the higher ranks of the Afghan army for the collapse of the previous government in Afghanistan.