Save the Children reports that girls are doing manual labor instead of learning in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
In a piece that appeared online on Monday (December 5th), Save the Children said that female students in Afghanistan have lost hope for the future after being banned from attending school since the Taliban regained control in August last year and have been transformed from students into child laborers against their will.
Instead of spending their days reading, writing and learning, hundreds of thousands of girls now spend their days working on farms or in other people’s homes, weaving carpets, looking after their younger siblings or the family’s livestock, collecting drinking water or cooking bread, according to the rights group.
Sacha Myers, a reporter for Save the Children, said it was painful to watch the hard-won rights of women and girls in Afghanistan being destroyed overnight.
The reporter explained that people all over the world should pay attention to the petitions of girls in Afghanistan and take a stand to secure their rights. Because according to her, Afghan girls cannot fight this challenge alone.
“I feel like my legs and hands are tied up with a rope and I cannot be the person I want to be,” says Zainab*, 16, about how the school ban makes her feel.
“I don’t feel good when I do the household chores. I’m not going to school anymore to hold a pen or book, instead, I’m holding grass to feed the goats,” says Mahnor, 13.
In the report, it is stated that some students who cannot go to school are thinking of suicide.
Save the Children has asked the Taliban to allow girls to return to school, as there is no administrative or logistical reason to justify this policy.
Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, schools were closed to girls above the sixth grade. Despite repeated calls and petitions in the national and international arenas, the Taliban has not yet shown a desire to reopen girls’ schools.
