Anger and chaos after Afghan girls kept away from school for over a year asked to write exams by Taliban

Furious teachers criticise the Taliban for asking girls to take their high school graduation exams after keeping doors of the schools shut for more than 15 months, reports Arpan Rai

File: Taliban fighters stand guard as female students arrive for entrance exams at Kabul University in Kabul (AFP via Getty Images)

None of the female students of Ashfaq Ahmadi* in Kabul have touched their books in months and were turned away from their high school’s gates last year. This week, however, they were asked to take their graduation exams by the Taliban, prompting anger and outrage among teachers.

“These girls have been fighting for months to attend school, and this is a moment of shock even for them,” Ahmadi says. None of his over a hundred teenage girl students were aware of the surprise move by the hardline Islamic rulers.

“As I know, the Afghan girls are still fighting if they can join school,” he tells The Independent over the phone from Kabul.

The anger is resonating also among other teachers in Afghanistan. “What exams are they talking about? The girls have not even been allowed to look at their textbooks,” says Afsoon Sayyid*, a teacher in the Nangarhar province.

After more than 17 months and a diktat prohibiting girls from entering high schools in Kandahar, the Taliban now require them to return and take their exams.

On Wednesday, the ministry of education declared that 31 out of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces will allow girls to take their high school graduation exams right before the winter school break began.

In a stark return to its barbaric rule, the Taliban have started public flogging and executions in Afghanistan. At least 27 people were lashed in public on Thursday in a northern Afghan province.

After taking over control from the US And Nato in August last year, the Taliban claimed they will make way for women’s and minority rights by allowing them to attend school and enter work places. But in a full 180-degree turn, they restricted all rights and freedoms, including imposing a ban on girl’s education beyond the sixth grade.

The Taliban's "despicable" public executions have confirmed their return to the dark past, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

Noor Azizi*, one of the girls who chose to sit out the graduation exams in Kabul, said the Taliban does not even guarantee safety for female students who step out.

“The girls are not safe, the Taliban’s fighters sometimes have hit girls for not obeying their rules of wearing hijab,” she says.

“It is simply not the right decision by the Taliban [to announce sudden exams]. I disagree with this move... I have not even studied a chapter,” she said, adding that there was only disappointment shrouding the future of Afghan girls under the insurgent leaders.

The Independent spoke with four teachers in Afghanistan who do not see any of the girls returning to the schools for taking their exams.

“Hundreds of girls wasted more than a year outside school only to be asked to come back to give exams? How is this fair?” Sayyid asks.

Sayyid had to stop teaching high school and move to coaching students up to the sixth grade. One of her former students in an eastern province appeared for her exam on Wednesday, just a day before her marriage, she says.

“The Taliban regime has not thought this through - especially about girls’s futures. They don’t want them to be in schools but instead be ideal women just inside homes,” she says.

There is no assurance of security being provided to the girls who want to return.

The head of Kabul’s education department, Ehsanullah Kitab, shared no details on how many teenage girls will be able to take the exam.

A document from the Kabul education department said that the exams would last from 10am to 1pm, while another signed by the Taliban education minister Habibullah Agha said that the tests will be held in 31 out of total 34 Afghan provinces.

Kandahar, Helmand, and Nimroz provinces have been left out for now due to a different timetable for the school year and high school graduation exams.

However, high school girls in these regions are also heavily under prepared. For Asma*, dejection is the only option. She has not seen her school since July last year. Her teacher Hangama Hamdard called it a mockery of hundreds of bright futures ruined.

“The girls here are very angry. How can the Taliban suddenly ask them to come back after denying them their basic human right for months,” Hamdard says.

On being asked about her education plan, Asma stares blankly.

“I can only wait for the Taliban to open schools once again and let me study,” she says.

“None of them are ready, they want to study for these exams. They want to learn something. If education only means just sitting for exams in this regime and not attending classrooms, then my students are against this force in the name of education,” Hamdard says.

She lost her job as teacher in formal schools in Kandahar last year after the Taliban said they did not need her to teach western subjects. She was asked to join only if she could teach the subjects under Sharia law.

The Taliban have prohibited women from public spaces without a male guardian, but Ahmadi says the young high school girls are desperate to return.

“The girls are not scared of force, they would love to come back to classrooms if the Taliban lets them study,” he said.

*Names changed on request