Afghan girls take to streets to protest school closure in Paktia

Dozens of girls have protested in Afghanistan’s Paktia province after Taliban authorities shut their schools just days after classes resumed, agencies and local media reported, as an estimated three million secondary school girls are shut out of school for more than a year now.

 The Taliban has gone back on its promise to allow women’s education and job opportunities and has since imposed curbs on women’s rights, bringing back memories of its first time in power between 1996-2001 during which women’s education was banned and women were banished from public life.

 When students in Gardez went for classes on Saturday, they were told to return home, a women’s rights activist and residents told AFP.

“This morning when they did not allow the girls to enter schools, we held a protest,” an activist told news outlets.

 Images on social and local media, including TOLO news, show the girls dressed in their school uniforms – some in head-to-toe burqas, others in school uniforms and white veils – marching through the center of Gardez to protest the closure.

 Since Taliban returned to power, more than half of Afghanistan’s 39 million people need humanitarian help and six million are at risk of famine, according to the UN.