Taliban Start New Academic Year With Girls Still Barred From Classrooms

The Taliban’s Ministry of Education on Thursday marked the start of the new Persian school year in a ceremony in which Taliban officials rang the school bell.

The Taliban’s Ministry of Education on Thursday marked the start of the new Persian school year in a ceremony in which Taliban officials rang the school bell.
Girls’ schools above sixth grade remained closed for a fifth consecutive year under Taliban orders, and the group made no mention of girls’ exclusion from education at the start of the new academic year.
The new school year began in the presence of senior Taliban officials, including the Taliban deputy prime minister for administrative affairs, as well as officials from the ministries of education, information and culture, and other departments under the group’s administration.
The Taliban’s education minister did not attend the opening ceremony.
Noorulhaq Anwar, head of the Taliban’s Administrative Affairs Office, claimed during the ceremony that the curriculum under the previous government had been imported from abroad. He said that curriculum had failed to meet the country’s needs.
The Taliban official added that work on a new curriculum is under way under the Taliban administration and that efforts are being made to design it “based on needs”.
Since returning to power, the Taliban have extensively reshaped Afghanistan’s school and university curricula in line with their strict religious interpretation, raising concerns among Afghans about the spread of extremism and the future of their children.
The new school year began as protests continued over the closure of schools and universities to girls more than four years after the Taliban returned to power.
While schools and universities remain closed to girls, the Taliban have expanded the construction of religious schools
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said earlier that more than 20,000 religious seminaries are operating under the Ministry of Education. According to him, about 2.5 million students are studying Islamic subjects in those schools.
Former President Hamid Karzai has called for schools and universities to be reopened to girls and for job opportunities to be created for women. He again warned that the continuation of these bans could have irreversible consequences for the country.