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The Taliban attempt to establish complete control over education in Afghanistan

2023-07-07 07:41:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Halima, 8 years old, was very upset when she learned that after going through many difficulties to get an education under the Taliban rule, her education path was blocked after the closure of the private school where she attended classes.

"We all came home crying," she told Radio Free Europe's Radio Azadi, describing the day she and her classmates learned their school had been closed.

She attended a private school in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.

"Our school was first closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, then because of the fighting, and now it was closed again," she said.

"We just want to learn."

The rural classroom where she taught was a lifeline for learning elementary math, Afghan languages, science and Islamic studies, despite efforts by the ruling Taliban to limit girls' and women's access to education.

But the lessons were halted when hardline Islamic authorities announced that the school, which was among thousands of community-based education centers in Afghanistan, would be closed after unspecified complaints "from local residents".

The unrest and poverty in Kandahar and neighboring Helmand province have made these two regions the focus of community-based education center development for three decades. Funding for these centers mainly came from Western donors through the United Nations and international non-governmental organizations.

Across the country, more than 500,000 children attend these centers, which are established in cooperation with the communities where they are located. Often the teaching in these centers takes place in private houses, mosques or in large tents.

Aid groups pay teachers' salaries, supply the centers with school supplies and often provide them with the curriculum taught in Afghan state schools. The centers, which usually consist of a single class of up to 50 students, half of whom are girls, also filled the education gap in remote areas where there are no government schools.

But since mid-April, almost 1,600 community-based education centers in Kandahar province have closed, leaving 50,000 students without an education. Similar numbers were recorded in Helmand province, but also throughout the country.

The suspension of classes at Halima's school and other schools appears to indicate the closing of the narrow window for learning in rural areas, where the Taliban want to have complete control over how children are educated.

Munir Ahmand, who led a literacy class in his mud house in Dand - a rural district in Kandahar province - said he was forced to close the doors to students in April.

"It is painful to lose these classes because they serve children in remote areas where there are no other opportunities for education," he told Radio Azadi.

The Taliban - who have been in power for almost two years - have not commented on whether they have ordered the school closures. But aid workers, representatives of human rights organizations and education experts suggest the hardline group is trying to ensure young students receive Islamic education even as community-based centers follow the state model.

This, in turn, has led to concerns that the Taliban either intend to close the schools permanently or use them as places to spread their extremist worldview and ideology.

"It's alarming," said Heather Barr, director of the women's rights division at Human Rights Watch. "The Taliban will most likely change these schools in a way that is harmful to students, especially girls."

Education has been the main target of the Taliban's extremist policies since they took power in August 2021 and took steps to eradicate secular education.

The teenagers were immediately banned from attending classes, despite the Taliban's promises to the international community, which has said that the Taliban's stance on girls' and women's education is the main obstacle to officially recognizing the hardline group's government.

Since taking power, the Taliban have consistently enforced strict gender segregation and replaced professional educators with clerics.

Last year, Taliban supreme leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada appointed loyal allies Mawlawi Habibullah Agha and Nida Mohmmad Nadim to lead the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education, respectively.

Both have worked hard to expand the ban on women's education and tried to turn schools into a tool for indoctrination by changing the curriculum, critics said. In some cases, modern schools have been converted into madrasahs.

In December, the Taliban banned women from attending university.

And after the latest move, a Taliban official said this month that his government had established "jihadist madrassas" in at least five provinces. Many Islamist militant groups, including the Taliban, emerged from such religious schools in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan in the 1980s.

Wazhma Tokhi, an Afghan human rights activist who focuses on women's rights and education in Afghanistan, suggested that the recent school closures could be seen as another example of the group's determination to eradicate secular education.

"They want to turn schools into madrasahs," said Tokhi.

The United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, which has funded many community-based centers, said it was holding discussions with the Taliban about "timelines and practicalities" for these centers to come under the leadership of Afghan non-governmental organizations, which take funds from abroad and have some sort of protection from the Taliban.

Tohki sees catastrophic consequences if the Taliban take direct control of community-based learning centers.

"Our future is destroyed", she said./ Rel