Women reiterate call to reopen schools for girls in Afghanistan

Kabul, July 15

Women students in Afghanistan have reiterated their request for the Taliban to reopen schools, a news agency reported.

This comes 660 days after the closure of schools for girls from grade 7 to 12 in Afghanistan. Students said they were facing an uncertain future. A student, Fareshta, said, “We should together, men and women, improve and take Afghanistan to a position, so that everyone can see us as capable.” Taliban’s policies of restricting women from public life, including from education and work, have sparked reactions at international levels.

Recently, Nobel Prize-winning education activist Malala Yousafzai condemned the Taliban for the reversal of women’s rights to education in Afghanistan, Khaama Press reported. She told an audience at the United Nations House in Abuja, Nigeria, “Ten years ago, millions of Afghan girls were going to school. One in three young women were enrolled in university. And now? Afghanistan is the only country in the world to ban girls and women from seeking education,” she said.

Yousafzai described how she experienced Taliban brutality when she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in 2012 for advocating for girl’s education, Khaama Press reported.