Wajiha Amimi hasn’t slept all night. The young Afghan spent it unpacking and repacking her bag, all excited at the idea of finally going back to school, for the first time since last August and the coming to power of the Taliban.
On Wednesday morning, his joy was short-lived.
In the middle of a biology lesson, just two hours after girls’ middle and high schools reopened across the country, she was stunned to learn that Islamic fundamentalists were rescinding permission to study.
“Suddenly we were told to leave until further notice,” Wajiha, a student at Zarghona secondary school in the capital Kabul, told AFP.
“What did we do wrong? Why should women and girls face this situation? “, asks the teenager, who” asks the Islamic Emirate to let our lessons resume “.
“I haven’t slept all night thinking about this new school year,” she says.
Girls in secondary school had been without classes for about a year in many provinces, first due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which prompted the former US-backed government to close all schools schools, then by order of the Taliban.
In primary school, girls were allowed to resume classes two months after the Islamists took Kabul last August.
The Taliban have argued that they need time to adapt schools so that girls and boys can be separated, when the vast majority of schools in this conservative country already meet this separation criterion.
The Ministry of Education had however announced a few weeks ago the reopening at the end of March of secondary schools for girls.
Wednesday morning, groups of students, all in joy, bags and books in hand, therefore arrived in their schools, in Kabul and in other cities in the provinces, with the hope of finally starting a new school year. .
The Taliban’s volte-face was dramatic for students, parents, and also teachers.
“Our hope was great but now it is shattered,” laments Muthahera Arefi, 17, a student at Rabia Balkhi girls’ school in Kabul, as she leaves the school.
In this school, students were not even allowed to cross the entrance gate.
“They refused to let us into the school. It’s heartbreaking for my daughters, ”laments a mother, dressed in a black abaya, who did not wish to give her name.
Tears stream down the cheeks of one of her two daughters, also wearing the abaya and a veil covering her hair.
“I couldn’t wait to see my friends again, to be together again,” cries the young girl, also on condition of anonymity.
Amina Haidari, mother of four daughters, is frustrated by the turn of events.
“I think for girls, living in the shadow of the Taliban is a total waste and a waste of time,” says the woman, who herself lost her job at the electoral commission, suppressed by the Taliban. shortly after their return to power.
“All Taliban statements are just propaganda […] We don’t think this government will reopen the schools,” she worries.
For Alia Hakimi, a teacher at the Tajwar Sultana girls’ school in Kabul, the closure decision will leave “students weakened and stressed”.
Last-minute change
According to a Taliban source interviewed by AFP, the decision would have come after a meeting Tuesday evening of senior officials, in the city of Kandahar (South), cradle and de facto center of power of the fundamentalist Islamist movement.
The Taliban had previously insisted they wanted to take the time to ensure that girls aged 12 to 19 would be separated from boys – even though such separation already exists in most schools – and that establishments would operate. according to Islamic principles.
For Andrew Watkins, a specialist in Afghanistan at the American Institute for Peace, the volte-face reflects a rupture within the Taliban leadership.
“This last minute change seems to be motivated by ideological differences within the movement […] on how girls returning to school will be perceived by their supporters,” he told AFP.
The international community has made the right to education for all a stumbling block in negotiations on aid and recognition of the Islamist regime. Several countries and organizations have proposed paying teachers.
On Wednesday, students at a Kabul secondary school briefly protested after having to leave their school, according to witnesses and feminist activists. “They left when the Taliban came and told them to go home. It was a peaceful protest,” a shopkeeper told AFP.