Girls are going to school in secret in Afghanistan

Girls in Afghanistan are having to go to school in secret in order to get an education.

Since 2021, when a group called the Taliban regained control of the country, girls over the age of 12 haven't been allowed back into the classroom.

The Taliban follow an extreme version of Islam and have imposed strict laws on women in Afghanistan - for the young girls breaking the rules by going to lessons, the situation is dangerous.

One of the girls attending the school, has told the BBC that she feels "frightened".

"The situation is really bad under Taliban rule, but I want to keep coming here [to the secret school] for as long as our schools are closed," she said.

Girls in Afghan secondary schools haven't been able to receive a proper education since the Taliban came into power last August

The secret school in the capital Kabul is part of a network of eight across five Afghan cities.

A teacher, who runs classes in secret all day, says it's a risk she's willing to take: "I don't want students to forget what going to school means, I want them to still feel they can learn and they should learn!"

According to the United Nations (UN), 1.1 million teenage girls have been affected by the school ban in Afghanistan.

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Taliban rule in Afghanistan

The Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021, when US and British troops started to withdraw from the country.

The regime said that they would behave differently from how they had governed Afghanistan in the past - when they enforced a similar ban on education between 1996 and 2001.

Following the Taliban's return to power, only girls' primary schools along with all boys' schools have remained open in most of the country.

And despite promising that the ban on education for older girls is temporary this time, the Taliban still hasn't allowed girls back into secondary schools.

"I find it so painful that they [the Taliban] are not allowing us to our schools," said another girl at the secret school - adding that she doesn't understand why she and her classmates are being denied the basic right of education.

"This decision is against Islam, it's illegal, why can boys learn and girls can't."

It's thought that more than 200 grown-up women - who were affected by the Taliban's previous ban on education in the 1990s - are now also attending the secret schools to learn to read and write too.

Taliban leaders have argued that schools and the educational material the girls were learning in lessons was not in line with the country's cultural values and Islamic laws.

However, it's believed there is some disagreement between the Taliban's leadership and ordinary members over the school ban. It's even been reported that some Taliban families have gone as far as to send their own daughters to the secret schools - in order to give them an education.

The Taliban has enforced rules on what women can and can't do in the country

Strict rules in the country also control what women are and aren't allowed to do, including a ban on attending university and a ban from nearly all jobs, including teaching.

Women and girls in Afghanistan are also unable to travel long distances, unless a man travels with them.

The control over women's freedoms and education in the country has damaged the Taliban's attempts to have their authority - as Afghanistan's government - recognised by other countries around the world.

But despite criticism internationally, the regime has continued to ignore calls from other nations to resume educating girls.

It's also one of the reasons why the United States has decided to punish the Taliban by not providing urgently needed financial support during the country's worst winter for a decade.

Winter in Afghanistan

The extreme cold, which is typical for the winter months in Afghanistan, has seen people struggle for food and warmth, with more than one hundred people having died in the country during the harsh conditions.

At the end of last year the UN said that nearly all people in Afghanistan were living in poverty and that two-thirds needed humanitarian help.

But some charities and non-profit organisations have had to pause delivering aid, as Afghan women are not currently able to work with them and the Taliban has also banned female aid workers from doing their jobs.

Afghan girls fill drinking water canisters from a stream

The temperature in Afghanistan has dropped to as low as -21C, but despite the risks of punishment and the freezing cold, the children have continued to arrive at the secret school in Kabul.

Their teacher says: "seeing their passion gives me energy, they're full of hope, so I have no choice other than to take this risk."