The secret schools for girls who defy the Taliban

It is a first floor apartment in a central neighborhood of Kabul. Negin Gafari’s room has been converted into a small classroom where a group of ten students between the ages of 16 and 18 attend each day. They are almost all from the neighborhood, family acquaintances who gather in Gafari’s room to do for two hours what the Taliban have not allowed them to do for a year: go to class. In the absence of permission from the Islamists, secret classrooms like this one are flourishing in the cities of Afghanistan that challenge the new rulers and try to follow, within their possibilities, the course that each student would have in a normal situation.

«It is a clandestine, secret activity, which would not be necessary if they were allowed to go to school. I don’t want to think what the Taliban can do to us if they see this class, what’s wrong with educating a woman? What is the sin? », Gafari asks aloud, to whom he changes his face when he stands before her students. She is serious and close at the same time, she uses a sweet tone to bring order and silence. She takes a second to impose herself on some students sitting on the carpet in her room, covered with veils and masks and who fan themselves with their notebooks to withstand the heat. She has been doing this activity for eight months, which can cost her dearly.

The first anniversary of the Taliban’s rule also marks the first year of high school students not being able to go to school. First-class girls come to class each day, as do college-age students, though now the campus welcomes men and women on alternate days. Gafari, 24, has one semester left to graduate in Economics. She dreamed of applying for a scholarship to do a Master’s degree abroad and then become a professor at the University of Kabul, “but the Taliban have buried our dreams and hopes. I am satisfied now with being able to teach these girls because education is a right that cannot be deprived of women », says Gafari under the watchful eye of her brother. The rhythm of life in this apartment has changed, but all the members of the family support this teaching task and assume the risk of hosting a secret classroom.

lack of hope

Every day they change subject. Gafari has all the textbooks that were used under the previous government and tries to advance as much as possible. By leaving students without high school, this also cuts off their access to universities, it’s a chain. The students have to pass exams and they take homework every day. At the end of the course they will not have a degree, but “it is better than being at home with your arms crossed. I see progress in many of them, they make an effort not to fail every day and pass the exams, they do their homework… but what weighs them down the most, like me, is despair. What awaits us tomorrow if the Taliban do not change their mentality?”, is the question asked by the young teacher and millions of Afghans.

Faced with international pressure and the need to obtain foreign recognition, in March it seemed that the Taliban were going to allow the reopening of secondary school classrooms, but they did not. The group argued this last minute change of heart due to a lack of teaching staff and asked for more time because they needed to create an appropriate environment for the girls to study and decide on appropriate uniforms. The Ministry of Education issued a statement to announce that the opening of schools would be postponed “until further notice when a comprehensive plan is developed, in accordance with Sharia (Islamic law) and Afghan culture.”

Gafari remembers that moment, as he remembers the Islamists’ promises upon his arrival that they would respect women’s rights. Twelve months later they cannot study secondary school and have been excluded from most jobs in public bodies. They lie, they always do. They don’t want educated women because an educated mother cannot produce a Taliban child and that terrifies them. Nothing in Islam prevents women from studying and we have great examples of academic women who are an inspiration, this is a purely Taliban issue, “thinks Gafari, who shares time for the interview, with the correction of exercises from his favorite subject, Mathematics .

When the two hours are up, the students collect their notebooks and slowly leave the house. In this neighborhood they feel safe, in the last eight months they have not had security problems and in case a Taliban stops them on the street, the answer is that they are going to visit a relative. “I don’t know what can happen to us if they catch us, but it will have been worth it,” Gafari affirms emphatically as he sees his students leaving his house.