Kabul, Afghanistan: The Taliban ordered secondary girls schools in Afghanistan to shut Wednesday just hours after they reopened, an official confirmed, sparking confusion over the policy reversal by the hardline Islamist group.”Yes, it’s true,” Taliban spokesman Inamullah Samangani told AFP when asked to confirm reports that girls had been ordered home.
An AFP team was filming at Zarghona High School in the capital Kabul when a teacher entered and ordered everyone to go home.
Crestfallen students, back in class for the first time since the Taliban seized power in August last year, tearfully packed up their belongings and filed out.
Hope and fear
The reopening of secondary schools for girls across Afghanistan on Wednesday had prompted joy and apprehension among the tens of thousands of students deprived of an education since the Taliban’s return to power.
All schools were closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic when the Taliban took over in August last year — but only boys and some younger girls were allowed to resume classes two months later.
In Dasht-e-Barchi, a Kabul district mainly home to minority Shiite Hazaras, 14-year-old Alina Nazari was happy to be going back to class after months away.
