Afghan girls stuck at home, waiting for Taliban plan to re-open schools

As the weeks pass in Afghanistan, the new Taliban administration has yet to announce when it will re-open secondary schools for girls, leaving them stuck at home while their brothers return to class.

Two weeks since boys in classes above the sixth grade were told to go back to school, the government says it is working on making it possible for girls to do the same.

"My request to the Islamic Emirate is that girls be allowed to go to school," said Marwa, a Kabul schoolgirl, using the term the Taliban use to describe their government. "Also (female) teachers should be allowed to go to school and teach girls.

"I dreamt of becoming a top doctor to serve my people, my country, and my family and work in the community, but now it's not clear what my future will be," she added.

The issue has become increasingly important as the rest of the world, whose aid money Afghanistan desperately needs, tries to gauge whether the new Taliban government will give women and girls greater freedoms than the last time it was in power.

"The Ministry of Education is working hard to provide the ground for the education of high school girls as soon as possible," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a news conference on September 21.

The ministry put a statement on its Facebook page on Sept. 24 saying no decision had been reached on when girls would be able to go to school, but that work on the issue was continuing and information would be shared as soon as possible.

Girls' education and literacy rates, while still relatively low by world standards and well below the rates for boys, have risen sharply since the last Taliban government was ousted by a US-led campaign in the wake of the Sep 11 attacks.