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Taliban allowing girls’ schools in rural Afghanistan
Many of the Taliban fighters’ own sisters and daughters are attending schools lately – a surprising shift in policy.
Following is a developed excerpt from an analytical report published by Foreign Policy, on May 04, 2020.
People in Badikhel a remote area of Khost province and largely dominated by the Taliban has said the Taliban allowed girls to attend schools. According to the villagers, the Taliban has assured them that they have no issues with the girls’ school.
A school owner told Foreign Policy, “Some of my students are daughters, sisters, or nieces of Taliban fighters. Mostly, all of these men are not living in our village. They are busy fighting and hiding. But they encouraged their relatives to visit my school and get educated.”
“My brother is a Taliban fighter. But he does not have any problems with the school. He wants me to seek wisdom and education,” said Latifa Khostai, one of the students.
In retrospect, when the Taliban came to power in the 1990s, they imposed a very extremist patriarchal rule and banned female education all over the country. Additionally, women were not allowed to work and could not leave their homes without a close male relative.
Following the fall of the Taliban regime, a déjà vu took place when the US and its allies entered Afghanistan and proclaimed women’s rights, and especially girls’ education, as one of their prime goals.
Now that the US signed an agreement with the Taliban in February, it has become clear that, sooner or later, the group would somehow return to power in some form, at the very least in some sort of power-sharing arrangement with the Afghan government.
When it comes to female education, some observers and activists believe that the Taliban would ban any kind of education for girls and young women again.
Both the Afghan government and the American negotiators made clear that such a regression would not take place, while the Taliban leadership preferred to stay vague and underlined the importance of Islamic norms in the context of women’s work and girls’ education.
“We are not against female education or work. But we have Islamic norms. This is still not the West,” Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the head of the Taliban office in Qatar, previously said in an interview.
The case of the girls’ school in Badikhel, however, shows that things are much more complex – only time, with its course, can resolve the equation.
The Islamic Emirate’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi has held talks with Bjørn Johansen, Norway’s newly appointed Special Representative for Afghanistan, focusing on political and regional developments.
In the meeting, Johansen said Norway maintains historic ties with Afghanistan and has consistently sought to play a constructive role in supporting stability in the country, Afghan foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
He noted what he described as noticeable progress in Afghanistan in areas including security, counter-narcotics efforts, and other sectors, adding that further cooperation should be expanded through the normalization of relations with the international community.
Muttaqi, welcomed Norway’s continued engagement and cooperation with the Islamic Emirate, saying that the current stability in Afghanistan should be utilized effectively. He also emphasized that progress made by the Afghan authorities could help broaden future cooperation.
The Government of Slovenia has contributed €200,000 to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to support humanitarian work in Afghanistan, focusing on reproductive health and protection services for women and girls.
According to UNFPA, the funding will help expand access to essential maternal and reproductive health care across the country, particularly in areas where services remain limited and humanitarian needs are high.
UNFPA said the support will be used to reach vulnerable women and girls with life-saving health assistance and protection services as part of its ongoing response in Afghanistan.
The contribution comes as international aid agencies continue efforts to sustain basic health services amid ongoing economic and humanitarian challenges in the country.
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has rejected recent accusations by Pakistani officials claiming that attacks inside Pakistan were planned from Afghan territory, describing the allegations as “baseless.”
Hamdullah Fitrat, Deputy Spokesperson of the Islamic Emirate, said Afghanistan believes regional issues should be addressed through dialogue, mutual respect, and genuine cooperation rather than accusations, emotional rhetoric, or threats.
He reaffirmed that Afghan territory would not be used against any country and stressed that no group or individual would be allowed to carry out activities that threaten regional peace and stability.
The remarks came after Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry reportedly summoned Afghanistan’s Chargé d’Affaires in Islamabad on Monday and handed over a formal protest note regarding an attack on a police post in Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Pakistani authorities alleged that the attack had been planned from inside Afghanistan.
According to reports, the explosion occurred on Saturday evening in the Fathkhel area of Bannu, killing 15 police officers and injuring four others, including one civilian.
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