Recently, a photo of two female students has been circulated on social networks, prompting various reactions. In this photo, two girls from Kabul City, who have completed the annual exams of the sixth grade, are observed hugging each other and crying for not being able to continue their education due to the prohibitions of the Taliban regime. Social media users have interpreted the photo from various angles, with some of them asking the Taliban authorities to open the gates of schools and universities to girls. They call on the Taliban not to violate the fundamental and natural rights of the people of Afghanistan by depriving millions of girls of education, and not to keep half of the population of the country inactive or push the country into regression.
The photo of the two girls generates the sympathy of every conscientious person to grieve and shed tears with them, regretting that in the third decade of the 21st century, a group has ruled Afghanistan that treats the citizens in a primitive manner intending to manage the country with medieval standards. However, I also see a positive and inspiring side in this photo, thus, seeing that photo, I did not feel sad, but my hope for a change in the situation increased.
With a glance at the history of the last fifty or sixty years in Afghanistan, one can comprehend that the trend in favor of school and university and enlightenment has faced several challenges while convincing the people in the cities and villages to embrace the importance of modern studies and education. Before the start of the war and also during the war, there was a trend that considered going to school and university as a symbol of deviance and irreligion, warning people against it. In the villages around the capital, people used to send their children to the mountains and distant places and let them run away so that their children would not go to school. Seeing their interests in danger, the conservative mullahs made their followers pessimistic about schools and universities, allowing them to send their children to mosques and schools for education. Although at that time, the issue of girls’ education was not discussed at all in many parts of Afghanistan, people did not let their boys go to school and learn modern sciences.
Now the situation has improved to the point that girls and boys desire to go to school and university with fervent interest, but the ruling group prevents the education of girls, as well as imposing cumbersome restrictions on the education of boys. Therefore, looking at the problem, we allow ourselves to be a little optimistic. People must realize the significance and value of science for individual and collective progress. Eventually, either the ruling group will realize their mistake and allow the boys and girls to study equally, or the existing regime will collapse and a system will be established that has formal and regular programs for education and higher education, providing educational facilities for students. The restrictions imposed by the Taliban on girls are indeed painful and regrettable, making the country’s movement forward extremely sluggish, but a source of consolation is that the current situation will not last for a long time and once the situation changes, there is optimism. The huge energy and enthusiasm of Afghan children and youth to reach the high peaks of progress and excellence should be managed in such a way as to remove great difficulties and obstacles and move the country forward quickly.
During the twenty years of the republic regime, along with the disadvantages and shortcomings it had, the major advantage was giving the people of Afghanistan a favorable opportunity to get acquainted with modern life and to use more or less the privileges of modernity. The main challenge of the Taliban’s governance comes from the fact that this group does not know how to deal with the modern trends in Afghanistan. In the meantime, Afghan women are the main defenders of renovation and modern values. Despite the back-breaking pressure imposed on them by the Taliban, Afghan women have still not approved of the Taliban-style life.
The Taliban’s hostility with schools and universities stems from the fact that they have realized that it is difficult for boys and girls who have gone to school and university to submit to their ideology and to abide by their way of life and thinking effortlessly. Even though the Taliban do not show serious opposition to schools and universities, in practice they make any efforts to make these two institutions ineffective and inefficient.
Early on in the return of the Taliban, there was optimism that the group had changed and learned from its past drawbacks and did not want to repeat the old ways. At that time, the Taliban tried to show a lenient face and fuel optimism. However, one of the analysts rightly pointed out that the Taliban have not changed, but the Afghan society has. In the twenty years of the republic, the civil society in Afghanistan was strengthened to some extent, becoming one of the main components of the sphere of politics and culture of Afghanistan. The Taliban knew that they could not destroy the civil society overnight, because they had realized that it was deeply rooted. Therefore, they needed more time to dismantle the civil society with long-term planning. We saw that the more time passed by the Taliban government, the more serious this group’s efforts to suppress the civil society became.
During the two and a half years of their rule, the Taliban have dedicated a significant part of their potential to suppressing women, human rights activists, journalists, and dissidents. They know that the Taliban regime cannot be assembled with the active presence of the aforementioned strata, and if these strata continue to operate in society, the Taliban regime will be at risk of collapse. During this period, it is interesting to note that relevant institutions in Western countries have tried to evacuate some of the elites, human rights activists, journalists, and artists from Afghanistan. This situation is worthy and commendable because it saves the lives of these people and also creates an opportunity for them to work abroad, but the fact that it paves the way for the Taliban to perform freely is an unfortunate incident. The Taliban have practically compelled the elites of the society to flee with their exclusivity and tyranny of voting and creating suffocation and terror. The Taliban mentality does not reflect diversity and color and considers it illicit and inappropriate. It is that if the Taliban regime can, it is ready to destroy all its intellectual opponents at once and be relieved.
Civil society is the primary enemy of ideological regimes, with modern institutions such as schools and universities that promote critical thinking having no middle ground between old-fashioned and traditionalism. If they have an active and useful presence in a society, over time, they will remove the aura of sanctity from ideological perceptions and petrified opinions and, consequently, the foundations of political systems. which are formed based on these perceptions, make them weak and shaky. The Taliban’s opposition to schools and universities stems from their awareness of the functioning of these institutions.
This is why the Taliban are trying to neutralize the role of schools and universities by taking various measures. By depriving girls of modern education, as well as by manipulating and ideologicalizing the educational curriculum of boys’ schools and universities, the Taliban intend to make the presence and role of schools and universities ineffective and weak in society.
