Afghan women speak to WION as Taliban dismantle their right to education, campus after campus

About 95 miles east of Kabul, at a university in Jalalabad, a senior University official with a reputation of always speaking up without a piece of paper came with "his notes" on December 21. Over 100 female students sat in the university auditorium awaiting the words that were to be uttered. The university official first recited a verse from The Quran, which says that the first word Allah revealed to Prophet Mohammed was 'Iqra', literally meaning 'read'.

The downcast announcement followed. That the girls are no more to be educated.

“We are in touch with high-ranking profiles in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. We will do our best to ensure your final exams are conducted. But until further orders, we have been told that you cannot attend university,” the official announced.

Among the attendants was Sana Siddiqui (21). In the eighth semester of her Law and Political Science undergraduate course.

Until December 21, Sana was just three exams short of earning herself a coveted university degree.

Not anymore.

Despite having known from the news hours ago about the Taliban government's ban on women's university education, Sana and her batchmates from the eighth semester had a glimmer of hope.

"We thought that at least we will be allowed to appear in our remaining final exams," Sana told WION in a phone conversation from Jalalabad.

The announcement from the top university official shattered what was left of Sana and her batchmates' collective hopes.

"One of the girls lost consciousness. Everybody else began to cry. It was a wave of emotions in the auditorium knowing that this was the last chance we were seeing our university and classmates," Sana told WION.

"But we knew this was coming. When the school education was taken away from young Afghan girls, we knew we were next," Sana added, referring to the ban on secondary education for girls in Afghanistan that the Taliban imposed in September 2021, a month after taking over Kabul's power corridors.

Sana's story resonated with Nargis (34), a former teacher who taught History and Geography to female students in grades 7 and 8 in a Jalalabad school until September last year. 

Nargis told WION it was the "worst day of my life" when three Taliban officials paid a visit to the school where she taught.

The hardliners ordered teachers to inform students inside classrooms to not attend school "until further orders".

"One of my Class 7 girls raised her hand and asked, 'Ma'am, is it closed for boys as well'?," Nargis told WION in Persian.

"She looked at me and I had no answer. She realised that it was closed just for the girls. She was inconsolably crying," added Nargis.

Despite WION offering Sana and Nargis anonymity, they insisted to be named, perhaps as a show of protest and defiance against the repressive regime.

"We can only request the international community and our higher education minister to allow our girls to be back in the schools and colleges. There was never a time as helpless as this," Nargis said.

Questions on Taliban's double standards on education

Zareena, 24, (name withheld to protect identity) graduated to become a lawyer in 2020 from a state university.

"When Taliban came to power, they removed virtually everything that was to do with law," Zareena told WION from a Kabul suburb, pointing out to Taliban's deliberate dismantling of the law and advocacy sector that existed in Afghanistan prior to August 2021.

Zareena said she enrolled herself in a diploma course at Kabul Center Institute months before the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan.

On December 21, when the ban on women's higher education was announced, Zareena was due to appear in an exam at Silo Road in Kabul.

"I cannot pursue my goals and ambitions because of the Taliban," Zareena said, adding that she once dreamt of studying outside Afghanistan. “I wanted to come back and serve my country with my knowledge of law,” she said.

In Afghanistan, the December-January period is usually known as the 'winter of exams' among students.

"For girls, winter is all that is left in this period," Zareena said.  

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