Afghan Taliban announce to reopen all girls schools by March

KABUL: Taliban have said they hoped to open all schools for girls across Afghanistan after late March.

Since the group assumed power, girls in most areas have not been able to go to school beyond grade 7. The international community is apprehensive that the group could reintroduce the harsh measures as they did during their previous, 20-year rule when women were barred from education, work or social life.

In an interview with an international outlet, the Taliban’s deputy minister of culture and information Zabihullah Mujahid said the education departments were seeking to reopen classrooms for girls and women with the beginning of the Afghan New Year on March 21. Afghanistan follows the Islamic solar Hijri Shamsi calendar like its neighbouring Iran.

Dispelling the common notions, Mujahid said education for girls and women in the country was rather a “question of capacity”.

According to him, girls and boys will be segregated in the schools, saying biggest challenge had been to arrange enough dorms or hostels where girls could stay during their studies.

He added that the solution wasn’t possible in densely populated areas, adding separate buildings were required for the same.

“We are not against education,” the minister stressed, as he sat at a Kabul office building with marble floors that once were the offices of the Afghan attorney general. The building is now the office of the culture and information ministry.

Taliban’s orders have so far been erratic, being implemented province-wise. In about 10 of the 34 provinces.

However, in the capital of Kabul, classes in private varsities and high schools have continued, with the segregation order well in place.

“We are trying to solve these problems by the coming year,” for the schools and universities to reopen, Mujahid maintained.

He further said that 80 per cent of civil servants had rejoined work, and added that women were working in the health and education sectors as well as in the customs and passport control divisions of Kabul Airport.