by Muhammad Arif Nasar in The Nation, Feb 8, 2023
The writer is a freelance contributor.
Education helps the sustainability of a society. It not only stabilises one society but helps the region in development. In today’s world where all the countries throughout the globe are working to improve their education system, the Afghanistan government, led by the Taliban, banned higher education for female students. Women play a fundamental role in a country’s politics, society, economy, and all other spheres of life. Unfortunately, Afghan women who struggled for decades to get a chance to contribute to society are once again limited to their homes.
After the war on terror in 2001, Hamid Karzai became president of Afghanistan and the process of providing education started. Despite facing war, terrorism, and financial crisis, the Karzai government and later president Ashraf Ghani’s government managed to work for providing education to their people.
The whole population of Afghanistan still did not have access to education, but there were marked improvements. However, after the withdrawal of the US in August 2021 the Taliban government looked more flexible and the world was hoping that this time they will not be as rigid as in the 1990s, even after the closure of schools for one month in 2021. The schools were reopened and again in March 2022 they banned girls from schools by arguing that they are working on a separate system of education for both male and female students.
Later, they repeated the same laws as in the 1990s by not allowing women to even visit parks or travel without male guardians. This time the Taliban education minister issued a letter stating that the government has banned female university students from getting an education after cabinet meetings.
The cabinet is not elected but is an interim government because they signed a deal in Doha of forming a new inclusive government until then the interim government will be managing state affairs. Unfortunately, after one and a half years of US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban are unable to form a proper government and the country is still governed by them.
The ban on female education in Afghanistan will cause great suffering. About half of the population of Afghanistan’s next generation is female which needs to be trained and educated to develop the country. This generation has faced wars since they were born. The female population of Afghanistan is facing socio-cultural barriers which include child marriages and violence against women.
Similarly, poverty also plays a vital role in the underdevelopment of Afghanistan because many parents are unable to send their children to school because of economic constraints. However, after the Taliban takeover of Kabul in August 2021 people were hoping that this time their children will be allowed to school and they were optimistic that women will be helping males in supporting families.
But the Taliban government spun the table in the opposite direction. Instead of tackling all those issues of illiteracy by improving the education system, and infrastructure, and providing facilities to the people they imposed a ban on Afghan female students. This ban will once again stop the Afghans from tackling issues like economic instability, health, education, and other issues faced by them.
The Taliban needs to allow female students to get an education because about 49 percent of the coming generation is female which will play a role in the development of the country. If a change in the system has to happen, it must take place quickly.
This can be done in the short term by dividing the university’s timing into two shifts which can help them in not building more institutions for females but by utilising existing buildings. There is no restriction on female education in Islamic law, which is why the rules in Afghanistan do not make sense. https://www.nation.com.pk/08-Feb-2023/the-taliban-and-education
