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Agence France-Presse

The Taliban ordered girls’ secondary schools in Afghanistan to shut on Wednesday just hours after they reopened, an official confirmed, sparking confusion and heartbreak over the policy reversal by the hardline Islamist group.
“Yes, it’s true,” Taliban spokesman Inamullah Samangani said when asked to confirm reports that girls had been ordered home.
He would not immediately explain the reasoning, while education ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmad Rayan said: “We are not allowed to comment on this”.
An AFP team was filming at Zarghona High School in the capital, Kabul, when a teacher entered and said class was over.
Crestfallen students, back at school for the first time since the Taliban seized power in August last year, tearfully packed up their belongings and filed out.
“I see my students crying and reluctant to leave classes,” said Palwasha, a teacher at Omra Khan girls’ school in Kabul.
“It is very painful to see your students crying.”
United Nations envoy Deborah Lyons called reports of the closure “disturbing”.
“If true, what could possibly be the reason?” she tweeted.
When the Taliban took over last August, schools were closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but only boys and younger girls were allowed to resume classes two months later.
There were fears the Taliban would shut down all formal education for girls, as they did during their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001.

The international community has made the right to education for all a sticking point in negotiations over aid and recognition of the new Taliban regime, with several nations and organisations offering to pay teachers.
On Wednesday, the order for girls’ secondary schools to resume appeared to only be patchily observed, with reports emerging from some parts of the country – including the Taliban’s spiritual heartland of Kandahar – that classes would restart next month instead.
Afghanistan: Taliban leader wanted by US makes rare public appearance
But several did reopen in the capital and elsewhere, including Herat and Panjshir – temporarily at least.
“All the students that we are seeing today are very happy, and they are here with open eyes,” Latifa Hamdard, principal of Gawharshad Begum High School in Herat, said.

The education ministry said reopening the schools was always a government objective and the Taliban were not bowing to international pressure.
“We are doing it as part of our responsibility to provide education and other facilities to our students,” ministry spokesman Rayan said on Tuesday.
The Taliban had insisted they wanted to ensure schools for girls aged 12 to 19 were segregated and would operate according to Islamic principles.
Afghanistan is world’s unhappiest country, according to UN report
The Taliban have imposed a slew of restrictions on women, effectively banning them from many government jobs, policing what they wear and preventing them from travelling outside of their cities alone.
They have also detained several women’s rights activists.


Even if schools do reopen fully, barriers to girls returning to education remain, with many families suspicious of the Taliban and reluctant to allow their daughters outside.
Others see little point in girls learning at all.
“Those girls who have finished their education have ended up sitting at home and their future is uncertain,” said Heela Haya, 20, from Kandahar, who has decided to quit school.
“What will be our future?”
100-plus ex-Afghan forces, officials slain since Taliban takeover: UN
It is common for Afghan pupils to miss chunks of the school year as a result of poverty or conflict, and some continue lessons well into their late teens or early twenties.
Human Rights Watch also raised the issue of the few avenues girls are given to apply their education.
“Why would you and your family make huge sacrifices for you to study if you can never have the career you dreamed of?” said Sahar Fetrat, an assistant researcher with the group.
The education ministry acknowledged authorities faced a shortage of teachers – with many among the tens of thousands of people who fled the country as the Taliban swept to power.
“We need thousands of teachers and to solve this problem we are trying to hire new teachers on a temporary basis,” the spokesman said.


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Afghanistan

Heartbreak as Taliban orders Afghan girls home, hours after schools reopen

Girls arrive at their school in Kabul on Wednesday. Hours later, they were ordered to go home. Photo: AFP 

Girls attend a class after their school reopened in Kabul on Wednesday. Hours later, girls were sent home. Photo: AFP

A girl studies at her home in Kunduz province. Photo: AFP

Taliban presses for release of Afghan billions stuck abroad amid mass hunger

Women carry food rations as they leave a World Food Programme distribution point in Herat, Afghanistan. Photo: WFP via dpa

United Nations:  Taliban to announce plans for girls’ education ‘soon’

Girls attend lessons at their orphanage in Kabul, Afghanistan on October 10. Photo: Reuters

Two girls search for books in a book stall outside the Kabul university while two Taliban soldiers pose after asking to be photographed, in Kabul, Afghanistan October 5, 2021. REUTERS/Jorge Silva TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Afghanistan: women stage protest urging Taliban to allow girls in school

Afghan women take part in a protest in Herat on September 2, 2021. Photo: AFP

TOPSHOT - Afghan women hold placards as they take part in a protest in Herat on September 2, 2021. - Defiant Afghan women held a rare protest on September 2 saying they were willing to accept the all-encompassing burqa if their daughters could still go to school under Taliban rule. (Photo by - / AFP)

Afghan women hold placards as they take part in a protest in Herat on September 2, 2021. - Defiant Afghan women held a rare protest on September 2 saying they were willing to accept the all-encompassing burqa if their daughters could still go to school under Taliban rule. (Photo by - / AFP)

Afghan news anchor made history for her Taliban interview. She then fled the country

Afghan news anchor Beheshta Arghand poses for a photo at a temporary residence compound in Doha, Qatar. Photo: Reuters

Afghanistan: Women allowed to attend university under Taliban rule, says acting education minister

A protester holds a placard calling for education for Afghan women during a demonstration outside the US embassy in Athens, Greece on Saturday. Photo: AFP

TOPSHOT - Taliban’s acting Higher Education Minister Abdul Baqi Haqqani gestures while speaking during a consultative meeting on Taliban's general higher education policies at the Loya Jirga Hall in Kabul on August 29, 2021. (Photo by Aamir QURESHI / AFP)

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The Taliban backtracked on its announcement that high schools would open for girls, leaving students in tears
The international community has made the education of girls a key demand for any future recognition of the Taliban



The Taliban backtracked on its announcement that high schools would open for girls, leaving students in tears.


Heartbreak as Taliban orders Afghan girls home, hours after schools reopen

The Taliban backtracked on its announcement that high schools would open for girls, leaving students in tears The international community has made the education of girls a key demand for any future recognition of the Taliban

The Taliban backtracked on its announcement that high schools would open for girls, leaving students in tears

The international community has made the education of girls a key demand for any future recognition of the Taliban