KABUL (SW) – Recent remarks by the interior ministers, Sirajuddin Haqqani, on reopening of girls’ schools has failed to raise hopes amid grim skepticism.
The head of the Ministry of Interior, Sirajuddin Haqqani, said in a recent interview with the CNN that the Islamic Emirate was not opposed to educating girls and that work was underway to reopen their schools.
In response to this, Heather Barr, associate women’s rights director and former senior Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch, tweeted that the Islamic Emirate had repeatedly broken its promise, and that their guarantee that girls’ schools would reopen was “meaningless.”
A number of women’s rights activists and teachers say they are skeptical about the will and commitment of the government to reopen girls’ schools above sixth grade. According to them, the Islamic Emirate does not want to reopen the gates of schools to girls.
Susan Khaleqyar, a women’s rights activist, says the arrangement of any solution is not time-consuming for months, and offering unacceptable reasons for reopening girls’ schools is a kind of excuse.
Basira Shirzad, a teacher at a school in Kabul, also told Salam Watandar: “The hijab for girls is an Islamic school, there is no problem, but unfortunately the education of girls has been politicized by the government.”
At least two months have passed since the beginning of the new academic year, during which many citizens, especially students, kept waiting for the reopening of the school gates to girls.
Zarifa, a student in Kabul, told Salam Watandar that she was frustrated with the closure of the schools and was waiting every day to hear about her school reopening.
In the last nine months or so, there have been many attempts at home and abroad to reopen girls’ schools above the sixth grade, but so far no progress has been seen.
ENDS
