Some female activists demanding that Taliban authorities reopen schools and universities for girls nationwide on Sunday staged a protest in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
Protesters mainly girls and numbering 25 marched through the city’s western Pol-e Sokhta neighborhood before being forcefully dispersed by Taliban security forces.
The demonstrator carried placards with slogans “freedom, work, education”, “wise mother strong nation”, and “education is our right”.
Secondary schools for boys reopened this past week across the country after winter break, but the Taliban did not allow girls to return to classes despite international denunciation of the education ban and calls for lifting it.
The Taliban closed secondary schools for teenage girls since taking control of Afghanistan in 2021. Last December, they barred female students from attending universities, making Afghanistan the only country where women cannot receive an education.
The hardline rulers recently also banned female employees of nongovernmental organizations from workplaces after restricting most women government employees from returning to work.
The Taliban previously controlled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 when women’s access to education and work was entirely banned.
