Afghanistan: Taliban confirm secondary school ban for girls

Teenage schoolgirls in Afghanistan continue to be excluded from school more than three months after the Taliban takeover.

The group took over running the country in August after the US and UK pulled their soldiers out of Afghanistan following a long war.

Girls and women were banned from schools and universities during the last Taliban rule between 1996 and 2001.

Officials have previously avoided confirming that there was an outright ban this time, with girls being allowed to return to primary school.

But in an interview with the BBC, acting Deputy Education Minister Abdul Hakim Hemat confirmed that girls would not be allowed to attend secondary school until a new education policy was approved in the new year.

Mr Hemat said the current situation was a temporary delay while the government ensured a "safe environment" for girls to go to school.

'We are just frozen in one place'

Schools in Afghanistan have only re-opened for girls at primary level

The BBC has spoken with students and headteachers in 13 Afghan provinces. All names of interviewees have been changed to protect their identities.

"We have nothing to do apart from housework… we are just frozen in one place," says 16-year-old Laila, whose school in Takhar province shut the day the Taliban took power in August.

Teachers, nearly all of whom had not been paid since June, said the situation was affecting girls' wellbeing.

Teachers also reported a worrying drop in attendance among girls in primary schools, who have been allowed to return.

They said that increased poverty and security concerns meant families were less likely to send younger girls to school.

'I feel hopeless about our future'

Laila, who wants to be a midwife or doctor, says she keeps her school equipment clean and tidy in her room, not allowing anyone to touch it, waiting for the moment when it can be put to use again.

"When I see my clothes, books, scarf and my shoes, all new just sitting in my cupboard without being used, I get very upset. I never wanted to sit at home," she says.

Meena wants to be a surgeon, but doubts whether she'll be allowed to continue her studies.

She remembers lining up in the playground at school and laughing with her friends, where they would sing the national anthem before going to lessons.

"Whenever I think about those moments, I feel upset and hopeless about our future," she says.

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Around the country

The Taliban government ordered boys to return to secondary school in September, but made no mention of girls.

Despite the comments made by the Deputy Education Minister, the BBC team in Kabul - Afghanistan's capital city - say that some girls' schools are reported to have re-opened after negotiating with local Taliban officials.

In the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif in Balkh province, one head teacher said that there were no problems and girls were attending school as normal.

But another student in the same city told the BBC that Taliban members had been telling schoolgirls to make sure their hair and mouths were not visible.

As a result around a third of her class had stopped coming to school.

Headteachers in three different provinces told the BBC that they had reopened schools, only to be told to close by local officials without explanation a day later.

Girls had been turning up at the school gates every day asking when they would be allowed to return, one said.