Afghan girls' education: islands of progress in a sea of adversity
| Kabul, Afghanistan
As the girls pile through the metal front door of the Sufi Mohamed Islam Secondary School in Kabul, older fellow students standing in a row give them a pat-down search and check backpacks.
The daily ritual is a nod to chronic insecurity in Afghanistan, and to the continued challenge of educating girls in a deeply conservative society.
Unlike female students in some Afghan provinces, girls in the capital don鈥檛 have to cope with harassment, acid attacks, or poisoning of food and water supplies.
鈥淔ortunately, we are not faced with these problems,鈥� says Safa, a 17-year-old student who dreams of owning a computer or mobile phone business. 鈥淯nfortunately, we are faced with security problems like explosions and suicide bombs. This is a fact of life.鈥�
Sixteen years after US-backed forces toppled the arch-conservative Taliban and overturned their ban on girls鈥� education, students here cram into classrooms to study calculus, conduct chemistry and physics experiments, and hone their English and computer skills.
Girls鈥� education is frequently put forward as a success by donors. And these young women are models of what can be achieved: Among this crop of future teachers, doctors, and businesswomen, aspirations could not be higher.
鈥淚 have this power and I believe in myself.鈥� It鈥檚 my goal to serve my country, it鈥檚 my target,鈥� says Safa, echoing other high-achievers within these walls, where 4,000 students attend class in three shifts each day.
But in many ways the shining example of Kabul is a rare urban island for girls鈥� education.
As the Taliban insurgency has steadily gained ground in recent years 鈥撀爏eizing control of more than one-third of Afghanistan so far, by the most conservative estimates 鈥� concerns are mounting that education trends for girls have begun to reverse.
While the demand for basic education for girls has risen even in rural areas, and individual families are making serious sacrifices to educate their daughters, the situation for girls is more typically grim beyond urban centers, educators and students here say.
Zubeidah鈥檚 family came from Wardak Province years ago, for example, where the Taliban closed the girls鈥� school in 2010. The girls who have been forced to study at home 鈥渁re brave,鈥� says the 17-year-old, who loves her math and English classes and aims to be a doctor 鈥渢o serve my country, and my people.鈥�
Her girlfriends in Wardak 鈥渁re hopeless for their lives,鈥� says Zubeidah. 鈥淭hey can鈥檛 learn. They want to be doctors and teachers, and can鈥檛 do it.鈥�
Two-thirds still not in school
No one disputes the huge progress made by girls and women since the days of Taliban rule in the late 1990s, when education for girls was forbidden 鈥撀爀xcept for the study of the Quran 鈥撀燼nd there were strict limitations on women working. In one memorable Taliban ruling, the windows of houses were ordered blacked out so that women could not be seen from the outside.
But even today, some two-thirds of Afghan girls don鈥檛 go to school, according to statistics compiled in a mid-October report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which charts the decline of girls鈥� education.
Robust Afghan government and Western donor efforts have 鈥渟ignificantly faltered鈥� in recent years, HRW found, as Western forces began to draw down, and donors packed their bags or shrunk their aid.
Based on nearly 250 interviews, the report found that 鈥渋nsecurity, poverty, and displacement are now driving many girls out of school,鈥� said Liesl Gerntholtz, the women鈥檚 rights director at HRW, in a statement.
鈥淭he government needs a renewed focus to ensure all girls have a school to attend or risk these gains being lost,鈥� said Ms. Gerntholtz. Government figures indicate that of 3.5 million Afghan children not enrolled in school, 85 percent are girls. Adolescent boys are nearly twice as likely to be literate 鈥� still just 66 percent 鈥撀燾ompared with Afghan girls.
Shift in Taliban policy
Despite indications that progress has stalled in girls鈥� education, critical changes have taken place during the decade and a half since Taliban rule 鈥撀爀ven among the Taliban, whose official policy now condones a degree of education for girls.
鈥淚 think the needle has moved,鈥� says a Western official in Kabul, who could not be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
Research indicates that 鈥渙rdinary villagers are demanding at least basic education for their girls,鈥� says the official. That alone is a turnaround from a decade ago, when the Ministry of Education set up a roving commission to prevent parents 鈥撀爈et alone the Taliban 鈥撀爁rom burning down schools.
鈥淯ntil what age they allow girls鈥� education is definitely unclear, and will vary according to the mores of the area, and the mores of whoever commands that area, whether it is a local militia or a Taliban commander,鈥� says the official.
The more inclusive Taliban education policy penned in 2012 was approved by Hibatullah Akhundzada, who is today the Taliban leader and 鈥渉as been a great promoter of consistent doctrine within the Taliban,鈥� says the Western official. Mr. Akhundzada rose to fame in the 1990s, going from being a judge in a small court in Kandahar to doing internal discipline of Taliban forces as head of military courts in Kabul.
Akhundzada鈥檚 鈥渆fforts to regularize the policy have not really been successful,鈥� adds the official. 鈥淲e keep seeing places where it鈥檚 just impossible for a girl to go to school at all, because some local Taliban commander says no, despite the policy.鈥�
But the official Taliban adjustment is nevertheless part of a broader progression in Afghanistan, says Abdul Qahar Jawad, spokesman for the Ministry of Higher Education in Kabul.
鈥淭heir strictness in 1996 was because they came off the mujahideen era, when the country was under war, and there was so much [lawlessness] ... and conservativeness was at a high peak,鈥� says Mr. Jawad.
Taliban exposed to pressures
The Taliban鈥檚 hard-line rules were a bid to control the situation and exercise power, he says, but the militants have also experienced 16 years of increased social freedom, education, and a freer press.
鈥淭hese tendencies might have affected the Taliban, too,鈥� says Jawad. 鈥淢ost of the younger generation are attracted to a new model for their lives, and that is not as strict a model as their fathers鈥櫬爋r grandfathers鈥�.鈥�
Indeed, the transformation could not be more dramatic, say educators at this Kabul secondary school whose careers spanned the Taliban era of the 1990s.
鈥淚t was a big difference, like between the ground and the sky,鈥� says Ghulam Nabi, a 40-year-veteran math teacher with a slight build, who recalls how the Taliban devoted half of the curriculum 鈥撀爁or boys only 鈥撀爐o Islamic studies. Today he works on differential equations with his top girl students.
Things have improved significantly since 2001, he says, 鈥渂ut we are still dealing with problems.鈥�
Those include fear of losing the gains of the past 16 years, even if a complete return to strict Taliban ideology is out of the question.
Families sacrifice
鈥淣ow people are educated, they won鈥檛 turn back to the past,鈥� says Mina Durzad, the director of the school, who in the 1990s quietly ran a school for more than 2,000 girls. When Taliban enforcers arrived, she told them the girls were only learning the Quran 鈥撀爋ne copy of the Quran per student was kept in the makeshift classrooms 鈥� or she said she was not allowed to speak to any men, and they would have to return to speak to her husband.
The Taliban 鈥渨ill never return back because people don鈥檛 want them back,鈥� says Mrs. Durzad. 鈥淚 am not satisfied with [what I see in] the future, but if all people work together, work for their country, then education will become a base for progress鈥�. If we were educated in the past, we would not face this problem.鈥�
Parents have recognized the need for education, too, even if living in areas where prospects are limited, by militants or by custom.
鈥淢any families are also fighting desperately to educate their daughters in the face of enormous obstacles and deserve support,鈥� states HRW.
It found families who 鈥渕oved across cities and even across the country to find a school for their daughters, who separated to allow girls to study, and who had older brothers make the dangerous trip to work illegally in Iran to pay school costs for their younger sisters back home.鈥�
Such efforts have paid off for Safa and her younger sister Sana, who like all the students here wears the uniform white headscarf at school. Their mother stopped being a doctor and switched careers, in order to teach at their girls鈥� school.
鈥淭he important point is Afghanistan is back and dealing with many problems, because so many women are illiterate,鈥� says Sana, 16, who hopes to be a computer scientist. 鈥淚f you want to build your country, you should have educated women.鈥�
