By Pedro H. Campos & Dr. Rosaria Marron
In July 2021, Dr. Rosaria Kunda Marron from EADS completed a Formative Evaluation of the Girls Access through Teacher Education (GATE) Programme which has been implemented since 2015 by UNICEF in Afghanistan. The objectives of GATE Programme were to increase female teacher presence in hard-to-reach areas and to augment the number of girls participating in learning spaces.
The programme provided an opportunity for females to receive a scholarship and participate in a two-year Teacher Training Programme. This opportunity was also extended as an in-service programme to female teachers who did not have the minimum requirement for a fully qualified teacher status in Afghanistan.
One key highlight from this evaluation was that the community members and leaders in Afghanistan were supportive of the GATE Programme, in spite of the absence of a deliberate engagement component within the programme. Also, the Government of Afghanistan had made various positive efforts to increase the numbers of qualified and competent female teachers through the provision of an enabling policy environment including the National Education Sector Plan (NESP) III, the National Girls’ Education Policy, the Teacher Education Policy and the Girls’ Education Strategy. The government had also garnered strategic partnerships with key implementing partners in gender in education in general – and girls’ education in particular – with UNICEF, UNESCO, The World Bank and GIZ.
There was definitely a clear movement at country level by the Government which was further enhanced by the absence of opposition from the community leaders to enable and increase girls’ access to education – something that was unimaginable in the past under a more conservative leadership.
In early 2021, as intra-Afghan peace talks continued, an overwhelming majority surveyed said it was important to protect women’s rights, freedom of speech and the current constitution. In August 2021, the U.S. and its allies withdrew from Afghanistan after 20 years, leaving the country under the Taliban rule In September 2021. Taliban spokesman Zabiulah Mujahid told that women would be allowed to study, but a so-called “decree on women’s rights” published in December that year failed to mention access to education or work. At the university level, the group’s acting Higher Education Minister said women will be permitted to study in gender-segregated classrooms and wearing Islamic attire.
In late March 2022, after the Education Ministry announced that schools would open for all students on the condition that boys and girls were separated either in different schools or by different learning hours, girls across Afghanistan arrived for lessons on the day secondary schools were due to open for them for the first time since the Taliban seized power. However, they were told to go home and were informed that schools would remain shut indefinitely. This took many by surprise, leaving students in tears. The Taliban stated that they needed to close the schools because of a lack of teachers. They also said they first needed to create an “appropriate environment” for girls to study and to decide on appropriate uniforms, and that the group needed to draw up a plan in accordance with Islamic law (Sharia) and Afghan culture for the schools to reopen. Deputy spokesperson Inamullah Samangani said that this plan was almost finalized and will be implemented soon. The Education Ministry said in a statement that it “assures the people of our nation once again that it is fully committed to ensure the rights of our compatriots to education”.
This measure was emphatically condemned by humanitarian agencies, rights groups, diplomats, the U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, the U.N. Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet among others at a time when the Taliban administration is seeking international recognition.,
Heather Barr, Associate Director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, categorically affirmed that “they [Taliban] don’t want to actually come out and admit they don’t want girls to go to school”. It is interesting to note that even in the most conservative areas, the majority of ordinary Afghan families appear to now be in favor of female education. Nowadays, the picture is more nuanced: a recent study by the World Bank found that there had actually been a rise in female primary school attendance since the Taliban takeover as security improved, but the decision to keep girls’ secondary schools closed appears to underline the gulf that still exists between the Taliban leadership and contemporary Afghan society.
Harun Najafizada, director at Afghanistan International Television, said: “the Taliban’s older generation – represented by the group’s religious leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and acting prime minister Hasan Akhund – is ideologically opposed to sending girls to school. They can’t take it and they see it as immoral and not in line with local culture”. The U-turn could be considered as a concession to the rural and deeply tribal backbone of the hardline Taliban that, in many parts of the countryside, particularly in the Pashtun regions, are reluctant to send their daughters to school. As one Taliban fighter from Helmand said, “if girls want to learn, their brothers can go to school and then teach them at home”.
Considering this division between a more “radical group” and another more “soft group”, Waheedullah Hashmi, external relations and donor representative with the Taliban-led administration, said that “the leadership hasn’t decided when or how they will allow girls to return to school”. He added that the Taliban leadership was trying to decide how to open education for girls older than eleven countrywide. This leaves some key questions on what happens to the gains made in the area of female participation in learning spaces in Afghanistan, and perhaps calls for more alternative approaches to girls’ education in Afghanistan.
REFERENCES
Glinski, S., & Kumar, R. (2022). Taliban U-turn over Afghan Girls’ Education Reveals Deep Leadership Divisions. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/mar/25/taliban-u-turn-over-afghan-girls-education-reveals-deep-leadership-divisions-afghanistan
Greenfield, C. (2022). Taliban Orders Girls’ High Schools to Remain Closed, Leaving Students in Tears. Reuters. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/taliban-orders-girl-high-schools-remain-closed-leaving-students-tears-2022-03-23/
Kermani, S. (2022). Afghanistan Girls’ Tears Over Chaotic Taliban Schools U-turn. BBC News. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-60848649
Laub, Z., & Merrow, W. (2021). The Taliban in Afghanistan. Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved from https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/taliban-afghanistan
Popalzai, M., & Stambaugh, A. (2022). Taliban Postpones Return to School for Afghan Girls Above 6th Grade. CNN. Retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/23/asia/taliban-girls-school-delay-afghanistan-intl/index.html
Strzyżyńska, W., & Makoii, A. M. (2022). ‘Is it a Crime to Study?’: Outcry as Taliban Bar Girls from Secondary Schools. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/23/girls-in-afghanistan-school-taliban