Eid Ceasefire Has Ended, Operation In Afghanistan Resumes, Says Pakistan

UNICEF’s regional director for South Asia, Sanjay Wijesekera, said on Thursday that the time has come to reopen schools to girls in Afghanistan.

In a post on X, he wrote that Afghan girls have waited too long and that reopening schools should bring hope to all.

He said hope, dignity and the future begin with education.

Tajudeen Oyewale, UNICEF’s representative in Afghanistan, also said on X that every girl in the country has the right to go to school.

He added that when girls are educated, communities become stronger and the future is brighter for everyone.

Richard Lindsay, the UK’s special envoy for Afghanistan, said excluding women and girls from education harms the country’s future and that education must be accessible to all.

The Italian embassy for Afghanistan said it hopes the new school year will bring a time when all girls can return to classrooms.

UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, also said in recent days that the country is once again starting a school year while girls above sixth grade remain barred from education and women are excluded from universities. He called for an end to these restrictions.

The Taliban began the new academic year on Thursday, March 26, without reopening secondary schools for girls.

Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls above primary level are not allowed to receive an education.

In a statement marking the start of the 1405 academic year, the ministry outlined its priorities but remained silent on the fate of girls above sixth grade, who have been barred from attending school.

The Taliban closed girls’ secondary schools on March 22, 2022. Since then, millions of students have been denied education, a basic human right.

Despite widespread domestic and international criticism, as well as reported tensions within the group, the Taliban have shown no sign of reopening girls’ secondary schools.

The ministry said the new academic year had begun in a secure environment and that it planned to provide healthy, standardised and balanced education for students.

According to the statement, its main priorities include restructuring the ministry, holding seminars and workshops to build the capacity of teachers and staff, reopening boarding schools in some areas, constructing and repairing school buildings, conducting standardised exams and facilitating the establishment of private educational centres.

The Taliban’s Education Ministry also said that hundreds of previously inactive schools were reopened last year and that 426 boarding madrassas were established and made operational across all 34 provinces.

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.

In its weekly report, the court said the punishments were carried out between Tuesday and Thursday, March 26, against people accused of various offences.

In a separate statement, the Taliban said one person in Kabul’s Char Asyab district was flogged for an extramarital relationship.

According to the statement, the individual received 39 lashes on Thursday and was sentenced to two years in prison.

Human rights organisation Rawadari has previously reported that the Taliban carried out cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments last year, including six executions under qisas, the stoning of a woman and the flogging of 857 people.

Despite opposition from international organisations to corporal punishment and torture, the Taliban continue to carry out public floggings.

The statement also stressed the need for broad public participation in the structure of power.

Participants also emphasised the protection of Afghanistan’s independence, national sovereignty and territorial integrity; the establishment of a citizen-centred, democratic rule of law; the protection of citizens’ rights and respect for ethnic and social diversity; the strengthening of the role of local communities in governance; and religious moderation.

According to the statement, participants agreed to adopt all of those principles as the basis for their joint work.

The two-day meeting was organised by the group Women for Afghanistan and aimed to strengthen co-ordination among Taliban opponents and create a shared framework for addressing Afghanistan’s crisis.

The chairs of the British Parliament’s defence and international development committees, the head of the UK Parliament’s friendship group with Afghanistan, and several MPs with an interest in Afghan affairs also attended and spoke at the meeting.

Britain is among the Western countries that have called on the Taliban to form an inclusive government and respect women’s rights.

The closing statement said participants underlined the importance of continuing such meetings in order to reach practical, lasting solutions based on national consensus.