Afghanistan's Taliban-led government has announced that high schools for girls, which have remained closed since the August 2021 takeover of the country, will reopen in March, according to media reports.
In Afghanistan, the new academic year begins from March which also marks the first month of the new solar year, reported Khaama Press. In a statement on Sunday, January 23, spokesman of the Ministry of Education Aziz Ahmad Reyan said the Taliban is committed to reopening schools for girls and that it is working in this regard "seriously and tirelessly".
Reyan claimed the reason behind not allowing girls to attend classes in high schools was because the Taliban was creating a safe system for girls. "The Taliban has no issue with girls' education that is why we have paid the salaries of female teachers. We will hire more female teachers for girls," Khaama Press quoted the spokesman as saying.
The spokesman further said that they were working on capacity building of female teachers and wanted to increase the number of these teachers so that only women teach girls. If female teachers were not available in some areas, then only elderly male teachers will be allowed to educate girl students, he added.
Girls were only allowed to attend classes up to six since the Taliban gained power on August 15 last year, which drew strong criticism at home and abroad.
The spokesman's remarks come after the US special representative to Afghanistan Thomas West told BBC Pashto over the weekend that Washington and the international community intend to pay the salaries of schoolteachers if the Taliban permits schools for girls to reopen, reported TOLO News.
"Regardless of whether the international community and the US pay the salaries of teachers, we, as the government, will open schools in the spring and this decision does not link with the demands of the US and international community," said Reyan.
