Calls grow for reopening girls’ schools in Kandahar as academic year begins
As the new academic year begins in the country’s warmer regions, a number of citizens have called on Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban leader, to lift the ban on education for girls above grade six and allow them to attend school alongside boys.
The calls were made on social media on Saturday, 14 Sunbula, and urged the resumption of girls’ education starting from Kandahar province. Users wrote that if the academic year is beginning in these areas, girls should not continue to be deprived of education.
The demands came after the Kandahar provincial education department asked families to send their children to school. In response, some citizens said the appeal was being made while girls above grade six still remain deprived of the right to education.
The protesters also called on the Taliban leader to show mercy to the people, as they put it, and create conditions for girls’ education in the new academic year. The appeals come as restrictions on girls’ education have become one of the Taliban administration’s most prominent limitations on women and girls.
Since the Taliban’s return to power, girls above grade six have been barred from attending school, and women have faced sweeping restrictions in education, study, work and travel without a male guardian. Kandahar, which is seen as the decision-making centre of the Taliban leader, holds a central place in many of the administration’s key decisions.
