Oceane Theard
The Taliban ordered, Wednesday, March 23, the closure of colleges and high schools for girls in Afghanistan, just hours after their reopening. Europe 1 contacted young Afghan women, forced to turn back after arriving in front of their college or high school. Sad and angry, they share their frustration.
The Taliban reversed their decision. They ordered the closure of middle and high schools for girls in Afghanistan, just hours after they reopened. “Yes it’s true,” Taliban spokesperson Inamullah Samangani told Agence France-Presse without further comment, confirming reports that the girls had been asked to return home.
“We were so sad”
For Ela, 18, this return to high school was a breath of fresh air. The young girl had been waiting for ten months to find her classmates, her teachers, to finally open her books. An eternity for her. But a few minutes after walking through the doors of her classroom, her hopes are shattered. “The principal and our teacher came into the classroom. They told us to go home. We were so sad. They didn’t know what to do. And then we went back with my classmates,” she confides to the microphone from Europe 1.
“I dream that peace will return”
Stunned students, disappointed to see the doors of their school closing so quickly. Without education, it is also the dreams of the future of these young Afghan women who fly away, like those of this 12-year-old girl. “I have a lot of dreams that I want to achieve,” she explains on Europe 1. “I want to become a doctor in the future because I want to treat the sick in Afghanistan. I dream that peace will return and that I can go back to school.”
For the moment, no reason has been given by the Islamists in power to explain this sudden closure. According to a government news agency, a reopening will take place if the girls’ clothes correspond to Sharia law and Afghan customs. The UN expressed its disappointment and deep frustration.