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In a not-so-surprising U-turn, the Taliban administration in Afghanistan on Wednesday, 23 March, announced that girls would no longer be allowed to attend secondary school. The announcement came on the same day the higher secondary schools reopened for girls – seven months after they were shut.
A Ministry of Education notice said that the schools will remain closed until alterations are made as per Islamic law and Afghan culture, according to the administration's official agency Bakhtar News.
Samira Hamidi, an Amnesty International campaigner in Afghanistan, told The Guardian:
Shukria Barakzai, an Afghan politician and journalist based in London, told Al Jazeera:
The Afghan administration, earlier last week, had announced that schools for all students – including girls – would open around the country on 23 March – the first day of Afghanistan’s new school year.
This was after after months of restrictions placed on access to education for high school-aged girls in the country.
On 22 March evening a ministry spokesman even released a video congratulating all students on their return to school. However, just hours after the schools reopened for girls, they were shut down again.
The last time when Taliban ruled Afghanistan, between 1996 and 2001, it banned female education and employment. But in August 2021, the extremist group had promised opportunities for girls’ education.
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