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Kabul, Afghanistan
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“I want” – the girl stops herself – “I wanted to be a doctor in the future. But when the Taliban came to Afghanistan, all the doors in the school were closed.”
Taliban approved Naj e Bashra Madrasa – A religious school exclusively for girls in the outskirts of Kabul – a teenage girl in a full face covering speaks nervously. Her classmates grabbed her arm under the table and realize that criticism of the dominant Taliban government is unwise.
Although imperfect, these religious institutions are, they are the only options for most Afghan girls over the age of 12 who want to be educated. Afghanistan remains the only country in the world that prohibits girls and women from receiving general education at secondary and higher levels.
The ban is part of the Taliban’s wide crackdown on women’s rights as it gained power in August 2021. The government decides how women must dress, where they can and cannot go, such as having a male guardian for travel.
In July this year, the International Criminal Court sought a warrant from two of the top Taliban leaders, citing persecution as evidence of crimes against humanity among women and girls. The Taliban accused the court of showing “hospitality and hatred towards Islam’s pure religion.”
The Taliban originally said the suspension of women’s education was temporary, with some leaders saying they hope to reopen in mainstream schools once security issues are resolved. But four years later, the Taliban fundamentalist wings seem to be prevailing. Secular schools, universities and even medical training centres remain closed to half their population. A report released in March by UNESCO, a UN agency, found that nearly 1.5 million girls have been banned from attending secondary schools since 2021.
“We told girls to wear the right hijab, but they didn’t. They were wearing dresses that would go to weddings,” the representative minister of higher education Needa Mohammad Nadim explained why the school was closed in December 2022. “The girls were studying agriculture and engineering, which is not in line with Afghan culture. Girls should learn, but they are not in an area that violates Islam and the honor of Afghanistan.”
Meanwhile, the number of madrasus educating Afghan girls and boys is growing rapidly. According to data from the Ministry of Education, 22,972 state-funded madrasas have been established over the past three years.
Among the Madrasa approved by the Afghan Taliban
At Naji-e-Bashra Madrasa, where CNN has gained rare access to films in recent weeks, registrations have skyrocketed since the Taliban began robbing girls of “mainstream” education.
The sounds of dozens of girls reciting Quran poems echoing through the hallways, as golden standard clans and religious texts stack up on the classroom floor. In the principal’s office, a large Taliban flag is supported in the corner. The certificate, engraved by the Taliban Ministry of Education, is located in the center of the principal’s desk. The Taliban directs the curriculum here, along with all the madrasas across the country.
This is a private facility funded by the parents of students who generally lead more privileged lives, so staff are given a little room to teach language and science along with Islamic research. In public madrasas funded by the Taliban government, the curriculum is almost entirely religious.
In 2022, the Taliban announced plans for the school’s curriculum, reporting by the Human Rights Centre, a human rights oversight group, “not only does it fail to meet the human development goals of international human rights instruments, but it also teaches students’ content that promotes violence, but also opposes a culture of tolerance, peace and human rights values.”
A report released last December claims that the Taliban has “aligned educational goals that are consistent with extremists and violent ideologies.” They have revised historical, geography and religious textbooks and stated that they have banned teaching on concepts such as democracy, women’s rights, and human rights.
“Students are very pleased with our environment, our curriculum and us,” says Shafiura Dilawar, principal of Naji e Bashra Madrasa, a self-declared and longtime supporter of the Taliban. “The curriculum set up in madrasas is set to be very beneficial for the role of mothers in society, so we can raise good children.”
He denied the suggestion that such institutions are being used to promote the Taliban ideological goals.
The principal argued that many families were satisfied with education for girls of this form, as Afghanistan’s population is already deeply religious, and called on the international community to support his efforts.
The Taliban rejected multiple requests for interviews.
However, many Afghan girls and women consider a madrasus, an alternative to more accessible education over the 20 years ahead of the chaotic US withdrawal in 2021.
“I wasn’t interested in attending the madrasa. They don’t tell us what we need to learn,” said Nargis, a 23-year-old woman from Kabul. CNN chose to use a pseudonym for her safety.
Nargis is a model student. She is conscientious, organized, hardworking, and has been a lifelong, hardworking student.
Nargis was studying economics at a private university when the US military had withdrawn from her city. She went to class in the morning, worked part-time in the afternoon, and taught English in the evening. She never got bored of learning.
“When I asked what I wanted to do in my life four years ago, I had a lot of goals, dreams and hopes,” she said with care. “At the time I wanted to be a very big businessman. I wanted to import from other countries. I wanted to create a big school for girls. I wanted to go to Oxford University. Maybe I have my own coffee shop.”
It changed in August 2021. She is no longer allowed to attend classes, is no longer employed, and she can no longer dream of the future she once mapped for herself.
But what broke her heart was seeing her younger sisters’ faces at the age of 11 and 12.
“They didn’t eat anything in a month. They were distraught,” Nargis said. “I realized they were so crazy like this, so I decided to help them with their research.
Nargis began collecting all the textbooks of the past and began teaching girls everything she learned. Other relatives and neighbors also began to ask for help – and she found it difficult to say no.
And then, every morning at Sharp, at 6am, about 45 female students, from the age of 12, creep across the city into the family homes of Nargis, before Taliban security guards are born. Nargis has no support or funding. Often, girls snuggle around one textbook and share a notepad and pen.
Together, they learn mathematics, science, computing and English. Nargis racks her brain for all the knowledge she has accumulated so far and passes it on to her students.
When it’s time for them to go home, she worries endlessly.
“It’s very dangerous. There’s no one day of the week that I can relax. I’m very worried when they come to me every day. It makes me mad. It’s a huge risk,” she said, fearing that the Taliban would discover her makeshift classroom and close it.
Two months ago, members of the Taliban began raiding the house she was teaching. She spent the night in prison and was primped for work. Her father and the other man’s family asked her to stop and said it was worthless. However, Nargis, horrifyingly, says she refuses to abandon her students. She changed places and carried them around.
Until the beginning of this year, USAID (US Agency for International Development) funded secret schools across the country known as “Community-based Education.” Under the Trump administration, some of these education programs are now being repealed due to the cancellation of $1.7 billion worth of aid agreements (of which $500 million had not yet been paid).
Nargis himself was a beneficiary of one such program, studying online for a bachelor’s degree in business administration in a US funded program. The program was cancelled last month, she says. It was a nail in the co for Nargis’ ambition. Not only cancelling her research, but also “Cancel My Hopes and Dreams.”
Nargis tries to keep him busy. However, on more days than she had hoped, a sense of despair creeps up, and she studies so hard to educate her sisters and friends, wondering if there is any point in being in danger. In Afghanistan, the Taliban, women cannot mix with men who are not associated with them, or work in doctors, lawyers, or most public spaces.
“My mother was never educated. She always told me if it had not gone under the previous Taliban government, so we studied hard…but what is the difference between me and my mother?” she asked. “I’m educated, but we’re both at home.
“What are we working hard? What work and future?”
