Afghan teachers calling on the West to increase diplomatic pressure on the Taliban

By James Rothwell and Suddaf Chaudry | Telegraph

Afghan teachers have said they are ready to die for the right to give girls an education as the Taliban issued demands for universities to be segregated.

Speaking to The Telegraph, teachers and learning coordinators – who asked not to be identified – said they had pleaded with members of the hardline group to let girls continue to attend schools.

“I am proud of my work. I will never stop this even if it costs me my life,” said one teacher in Kandahar province.

The teacher works with Pen Path, a non-government organisation which has opened more than a hundred schools in impoverished areas across 13 provinces and is campaigning for women and girls to remain in education.

The Taliban’s leadership has insisted that it will not “victimise” women and that girls’ education will continue.

“Schools will be open and the girls and the women, they will be going to schools, as teachers, as students,” said Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen last week.  

But many Afghans fear this commitment will not be honoured, especially following reports of women being ordered to leave their jobs and send male relatives to work in their stead.

During the Taliban’s first period in power, from 1996 to 2001, women and girls were forbidden from attending school altogether. 

In Herat, Afghanistan’s third largest city, the Taliban have reportedly told universities to segregate male and female students. The Taliban is also said to have demanded that only female teachers will be allowed to teach girls, and male teachers for boys.

“After the Taliban return, we are afraid that we will lose all our rights, but the Taliban are stating that they won’t stop us from [going to] schools and won’t take our rights,” said one of the Afghan teachers who spoke to The Telegraph.

“If the Taliban don’t let us study, we won’t stop and lose the courage we have,” they added.

In an interview with the New York Times, Afghan graduate and activist Crystal Bayat said the Taliban had boasted to her that “for only 20 days you are free”.

Ms Bayat had organised a daring anti-Taliban demonstration in Kabul of around 200 people when a Taliban fighter gave her the chilling warning.  

Meanwhile, the founder of Afghanistan’s only all-girls boarding school has revealed she took the heartbreaking decision to burn all her pupils’ academic records.

“I’m burning my students’ records not to erase them, but to protect them and their families,” wrote Shabana Basij-Rasikh on Twitter.

But she stressed that the Taliban’s takeover had only hardened her resolve in educating girls. “The fire in me to invest in the education of Afghan girls who have no way out grows brighter, stronger, and louder,” she said.

Pen Path volunteers said that the Taliban had agreed to allow some girls to be educated at home, though they said this would only affect 30 per cent of female students.

“These are very uncertain times, we have to remain hopeful,” one volunteer said.

The Afghan teachers said they were calling on the West to increase diplomatic pressure on the Taliban in the hope that they might change course.

“Despite all these threats and warnings we will raise our voice, fight for our rights specially for education. We will never give up and never go back,” said one teacher.

They added: “No more fear and more silence, but we need international community support, especially from the media.”

Another teacher, in southern Kandahar, said: “We will neither stop our work nor flee from the country, it is our country and it is our responsibility to work for it and make it peaceful.

“No one has the right to stop us from education. I have the courage and aspiration to dedicate six hours in the day to girls’ education. We will fight to keep our voice raised, no one can stop us from this.”

Many teachers in Afghanistan have faced reprisals for continuing to teach girls. One said they suspected that an attack on their car in 2017 had been ordered by the Taliban, and that they had not drawn a salary in 11 years.

The charity UNICEF has warned that around 10 million children in Afghanistan are in need of humanitarian assistance to survive under the Taliban, and is also lobbying for girls’ education rights.

“In recent years, significant strides have been on increasing girls’ access to education,” a Unicef spokesman said, referring to the system under the US-backed Afghan government which collapsed last week.

“It is vital that these gains are preserved and advocacy efforts continue so that all girls in Afghanistan receive a quality education.”