A local newspaper cited an anonymous source privy to the discussion that the Afghan delegation also discussed women’s rights and girls’ education with the Taliban, in the negotiation organized by Canadian-based organization Pugwash Council in Doha, and got positive response from them. I believe that entitling women their rights, especially right to education, shows a great change in the Taliban’s policy towards them.

The Taliban’s misogynistic attitude towards girls and women is known to the entire world. As a result, the Taliban militants sprayed corrosive acid on the faces of Afghan girls on the way to their schools and razed their schools to the ground. In the Taliban’s ideology, women have to be restricted within the four walls and have no social or political rights in a society. In other words, they are born to satiate men’s carnal desires, breast-feed their children and do the household chores.

Under the Taliban’s regime, the women’s dignity was considered in doing domestic chores. They were not supposed to attend school or social activities – this would lead to blackening their reputation, the militants believed.  

Afghan girls were living behind closed doors with profound wounds in their hearts and cursed themselves for being female. After all, they were treated as social anathema by the rabid misogynists – as if women were the epitome of all evils. In short, they had to play a servile role within their husbands’ domiciles rather than a paramount social, political or cultural role in the society.

Long after the overthrow of the Taliban in late 2001, Afghan girls are still fighting for equal access to education and the right to learn. While certain indicators of girls’ education showed encouraging results in previous years, some of that progress has stagnated.

Several factors contribute to low attendance of girls such as family income, societal pressure – Afghan girls traditionally marry very young – family honor, the distance of the school, local security and lack of female teachers.

While Afghanistan’s constitution gives girls the right to attend school, the reality of equal access to education, remains elusive. Without an education, girls are often forced into early marriage and child-bearing, robbing their chances to become proud, productive citizens and robbing the country of close to 50% of an additional workforce.

If Afghanistan has any reason for hope, it is the sheer determination of the girls who do have a chance to go to school. An example of this hope, as it was reported by Help the Afghan Children (HTAC), is the story of a 12-year-old girl Lida, whose sister was killed in a shooting in Logar Province, about a 90 minute drive from Kabul, who began going back to school not long after her sister’s death. Every day she walked past the spot where her sister was gunned down. But she kept clinging to her dream of becoming a doctor. “I am afraid”, she is cited “But I like school because I am learning something and that will make me important. With education, I can save my country.”

 If an Afghan girl, like Lida, is willing to risk her life to learn, she has to nurture the idea of being a national heroine and continue with great determination. Although, the girls encounter great challenges in getting education, they should not lose their morale so as to touch the peak of their dreams.

It is simply said that action speaks louder than words. The Taliban militants still show antipathy towards women. In another item, the girls are bereft of their right to education in the Taliban-dominated areas. Their policy will never change regarding women and no one will fall for the militants’ bogus claims.

However, a dearth of textbooks, teaching materials and equipped laboratories aggravate the challenges of the students. A large number of the students complain about lack of textbooks while there are plenty sold in bazaars. This fact points out corruption in schools.

It is believed that every year, more than 100,000 secondary school graduates write the kankor, but due to insufficient spaces and limited capacity, only about half of those students find a spot at the government universities and colleges. Those who fail either go to private institutions, which are very expensive and out of reach for most Afghan families, or try to pass the entrance exam again.

There is much to be done regarding education in Afghanistan. Various strategies for education, especially for women should be carried out, and the establishment, promotion and construction of buildings for girls’ schools must be at the top of the priority list for the Ministry of Education. To increase the number of female students in professional and technical education schools, the Ministry has to plan to run public awareness programs in media.

Furthermore, education is means for empowering women. All the citizen in general and females in particular have to do their best to get rid of ignorance and unawareness. Since education ennobles one spiritually and enables him/her to know about their rights and dignity, it is considered an obligation on men and women to learn.

Taliban’s ban on education for female is irrational. They just imposed their own ideology at the point of gun on Afghan citizens during their regime and yet continue their militancy via killing the innocent citizens. Hope the citizens, male and female, continue getting education with a high spirit and never succumb to the militants’ threat.