BBC Reports- The Taliban have excluded girls from Afghan secondary schools, after they ordered only boys and male teachers to return to the classroom.
Schoolgirls told the BBC they were devastated not to be returning. “Everything looks very dark,” one said.
A Taliban spokesman said there were plans to open girls’ schools soon.
But there are fears Afghanistan is returning to the harsh rule of the 1990s when a similar ban on girls’ schooling was in place.
‘I am so worried about my future’
A statement issued ahead of Afghan schools reopening on Saturday said: “All male teachers and students should attend their educational institutions.”
Secondary schools are usually for students aged between 13 and 18, and most are segregated.
But schoolgirls and their parents said prospects were bleak.
“I am so worried about my future,” said one Afghan schoolgirl, who had hoped to be a lawyer.
“Everything looks very dark. Every day I wake up and ask myself why I am alive? Should I stay at home and wait for someone to knock on the door and ask me to marry him? Is this the purpose of being a woman?”
Her father said: “My mother was illiterate, and my father constantly bullied her and called her an idiot. I didn’t want my daughter to become like my mum.”
Another schoolgirl, a 16-year-old from Kabul, said it was a “sorrowful day”.
Some suggested the new rules would exclude women from education because the universities do not have the resources to provide separate classes. Barring girls from secondary schools would mean none would be able to go on to further education.
courtesy: bbc.com/news
