Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, they ordered the closure of girls’ schools beyond the sixth grade. This closure has not only deprived girls of education but also shattered hopes for a brighter future. Investigations by the Hasht-e Subh Daily in two provinces reveal that the Taliban have recently converted at least 25 secondary schools for girls and boys in Badakhshan and Takhar provinces into religious schools and madrasas.
Local sources in Badakhshan province, speaking to the Hasht-e Subh Daily, report that the Taliban have allocated girls’ schools to madrasas and religious schools in the districts of Ishkashim, Jurm, Khash, Khwahan, Zebak, Shighnan, Shekay, Kuran Wa Munjan, Keshem, Wakhan, Yumgan, and the city of Fayzabad, the capital of this province. According to sources, approximately 2,150 female students have been enrolled in these religious schools and madrasas.
According to sources, the educational institutions affected include the “Ishkashim Girls’ High School, Jurm Girls’ High School, Khash Central Girls’ High School, Khwahan Central Girls’ High School, Zebak Central Girls’ High School, Shighnan Pasto Girls’ High School, Shahpari Kuran Wa Munjan Girls’ High School, Jershah Babayi Khash Girls’ High School, Pegish Wakhan Girls’ High School, Khash Khanqa Girls’ High School in Yumgan district, as well as the Makhfi Girls’ School, Deh Kalan Girls’ High School, Swat-e Hayati Girls’ High School, Saheed Sayyaf Girls’ High School, and Chatta Girls’ High School in Fayzabad city.” These are among the schools whose educational curriculum has been altered into a religious curriculum.
Sources add that girls from school have been forced to attend these madrasas out of necessity. According to sources, girls in these religious institutions are obligated to learn Islamic teachings in line with the Taliban’s interpretation and to memorize the Quran.
Simultaneously, a source in the Department of Education in Badakhshan under Taliban control states that the buildings of these modern schools have been allocated to religious schools and madrasas in coordination with the Taliban Ministry of Education. According to the procedure, female students from grades seven to twelve who were studying in modern schools are enrolled in these religious institutions.
The source emphasizes that in these schools and madrasas, where a modern education curriculum was taught during the republic era, now the Taliban curriculum is being taught, and their teachers are all clerics and Qur’an readers employed by the Department of Education in coordination with the Taliban’s Directorate of Hajj and Endowments in Badakhshan province.
The source further states that the teaching method in these newly established religious schools and madrasas is such that male teachers instruct girls via loudspeakers without being present in the classrooms.
Schools converted to madrasas in Takhar Province
Local sources in Takhar have confirmed to the Hasht-e Subh Daily that the Taliban’s education department in this province, in coordination with the Ministry of Education of this group, has allocated several girls’ schools in Taloqan, the capital of Takhar province, to madrasas.
According to sources, among the schools converted into madrasas are two of the oldest girls’ high schools in Takhar province, where about seven thousand female students from grades nine to twelve were engaged in education during the previous government’s rule.
Sources claim that with the start of the new academic year, approximately 760 female students from grades seven to twelve have been enrolled in these schools, previously girls’ state schools, and are now engaged in religious education.
Sources also add that the Taliban have transformed the only technical and vocational school in Takhar into the largest Jihadist school, and currently, about three thousand students are busy with Quranic studies in its Quran memorization departments.
Takhar and Badakhshan Residents Concerned as Schools Turned into Madrasas
Some residents of Badakhshan and Takhar provinces describe the Taliban’s actions as hostile towards the people and demand the preservation of the modern educational system of schools in line with the previous curriculum. They argue that this move by the Taliban destroys girls’ schools in the northeastern provinces of the country.
Imam Mohammad, a resident of Kishim district in Badakhshan province, condemns the Taliban’s action and calls for the swift reopening of girls’ schools in the province.
“This plan to change schools from modern education to madrasas is being carried out by the Taliban. It’s a clear hostility towards knowledge, and Badakhshan’s residents should not allow the Taliban to do this for the future of their children,” he says.
Junaidullah (pseudonym), a teacher at Sayed Abdul Rahman Shaheed High School in Taloqan city, tells the Hasht-e Subh Daily that converting schools into madrasas does not benefit students but rather worries them about their children’s future.
“For twenty years, we have had a modern education system, and millions of Afghanis have been invested in these schools. But now, the Taliban, under various pretexts, are destroying all these achievements and leaving girls and women with an uncertain fate. This is not logical,” he adds.
Residents of Takhar demand the Taliban preserve the modern education system alongside establishing religious schools seriously and provide equal educational opportunities for all students, boys, and girls alike.
Najibullah, another resident of Takhar, states that by converting schools into madrasas, girls will be deprived of modern science education.
“This Taliban move has destroyed the achievements of twenty years of the republic, and now this group intends to indoctrinate female students with extremist Islamic education,” he adds.
Meanwhile, local Taliban officials in Badakhshan province remain silent about their actions. However, Noorullah, the spokesman for the Taliban’s education department in Takhar province, states that they have transformed schools into madrasas under the guidance of the Ministry of Education of this group.
The Taliban’s education department spokesman in Takhar considers the establishment of religious schools as one of their important programs and emphasizes that more attention will be given to the growth of religious schools.
According to local sources, currently, about 1,400 formal religious schools known as madrasas are operating across the provinces of Badakhshan and Takhar, including their central and district levels, with over 11,400 children and teenagers studying in these schools.
You can read the Persian version of this report here:
تغییر نصاب معارف؛ طالبان ۲۵ مکتب را در تخار و بدخشان به مدرسه تبدیل کردند
