“Afghanistan was such a strong country. We were for freedom and education, but everything has changed from day to night now.”
Afghanistan, a country that resisted colonization, was once known as “The Graveyard of Empires.” Today, Afghan women and girls have fallen victims to institutionalized oppression by the Taliban. The situation in Afghanistan today is dire, but many are unaware of the full extent of the tragedy for women and everyone in the country. It’s easy to recall Afghanistan as a country which has long faced war and destruction, but before the Taliban took power in 1996 and then again in August 2021, Afghanistan was progressive.
In fact, Zarghuna Rogers, my great aunt and an Afghan woman who attended elementary school through college in Afghanistan—something unheard of today—shared, “Afghanistan was such a strong country. We were for freedom and education, but everything has changed from day to night now.” She explained, “My parents pushed all my sisters and I to go to school in Afghanistan. Everyone was encouraged to obtain higher education too.”
When reflecting on the state of Afghanistan today, she stated, “If you don’t go to school, you won’t be able to communicate, learn and express yourself in the way that an educated person can. At the time I was in Afghanistan, it was unimaginable for girls not to go to school. It’s horrible to see women denied their right to education.”
She is absolutely correct. The UN Special Rapporteur Human Rights report on Afghanistan found that the denial of education and ensuing lack of opportunities for women in Afghanistan has prevented them from pursuing careers outside of the home. Without women pursuing such careers, they are unable to receive equal treatment in all aspects of society. For example, in circumstances where the Taliban only allows female doctors to care for female patients, there are no doctors or female staff available to provide medical treatment.
The people of Afghanistan were not against the education of their daughters. More than 3 million girls were going to school without any official force by the government.
Dr. Sima Samar
Dr. Sima Samar, a human rights advocate and another Afghan woman, said, “I had gone to Co-Education in Lashkargah—the capital of Helmand, one of the most conservative provinces in the country without facing restrictions from my family and the local people. The people of Afghanistan were not against the education of their daughters. More than 3 million girls were going to school without any official force by the government.” She emphasizes that what the Taliban does today is not Islamic and it is not our tradition.
The Human Rights Report continues, “The Taliban’s institutionalized system of discrimination and segregation is obliterating Afghanistan’s future female engineers, journalists, lawyers, biologists, politicians, and poets. This is a profound and mounting loss to an entire nation.” The report quotes an Afghan woman who corroborates this assertion based on her own experience: “When I am at home, I feel like I am in a prison. I feel blind. When I was going to school, I felt free.”
It’s easy to imagine that what happened in Afghanistan could never happen anywhere else. However, when we become aware that Afghanistan was once a progressive country with a promising future, we become aware that we are all at risk of experiencing the tragedies unfolding there. Women’s right to education in Afghanistan is a global issue which impacts each of us, and it should be treated as such.
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