The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports that girl students in Balkh say that the continued closure of girls’ schools in the new academic year has once again crushed their dreams.
The report, which focuses on the situation of girl students and female teachers in the Balkh province in northern Afghanistan, was published on Monday.
Mursal, a student in the twelfth grade at one of Balkh’s schools, said in the report, “Every second and every minute gradually breaks me apart. It is very difficult to know how our future will be. I have no way of looking to the future.”
According to this report, Afghan girls expected to receive the news of returning to their classes with the start of the new academic year, but the Taliban’s abandonment of their promises to reopen girls’ schools has crushed their hopes for the future.
The UNICEF report suggests that the burden of the blockade of girls’ schools does not only fall on the shoulders of female students; female teachers in Balkh are also sharing the grief of their students.
Safiya, a teacher at one of Balkh’s schools, likened the closure of school doors to locked gates with a lost key, saying, “Teachers cannot teach. It’s like being behind a locked door without a key, and no one is there to help you find it.”
Balkh, in northern Afghanistan, was one of the provinces where girl students could attend schools after the closure of schools for girls in other provinces by Taliban, but Taliban also closed the doors of girls’ schools in this province in December of last year.
