The nightmare continues for Afghan girls
(Courtesy of Aydin Sahba Yaqouby)
18-year-old Afghan student Aydin Sahba Yaqouby writes about life since the Taliban banned girls from attending secondary school.
This week marks one year since the Taliban banned girls from attending secondary school in Afghanistan. One year of oppression, violence and barbarism. One year of living in this nightmare, a nightmare where Afghan girls suffer and the world watches.
When the Taliban took power in August 2021, the doors to every girls’ school shut, stripping over a million girls like me of their basic right to education. On the very first day of their takeover, I remember being trapped in the house, afraid to look outside, terrorized by the idea of never being able to go out again. Today, a year later, the story remains the same. Afghan girls are afraid to leave their houses and banned from entering their schools. Even though I have left the country and now attend a school overseas, the trauma and pain of my fellow Afghan sisters continue to torture me every hour of the day.
“On the very first day of their takeover, I remember being trapped in the house, afraid to look outside, terrorized by the idea of never being able to go out again. Today, a year later, the story remains the same.”
In March 2022 — eight months after schools closed for girls — the Taliban promised to reopen them. I spoke to my 15-year-old cousin in Afghanistan over the phone the night before she was supposed to return to school. Her voice was filled with so much joy and happiness. She told me how she had ironed her first-day-of-school clothes (a black dress and white scarf), shined her shoes and packed her backpack in preparation for the next day. “I’ll finally go out; I’ll meet my friends!” she told me in a low, excited voice with a lump in her throat. But the next day she and her friends were met with closed doors and the angry faces of soldiers. She had left the house with hope and returned to it hopeless.
My cousin is one of more than 1.2 million Afghan girls whose schools are shut, who have no place outside their homes and no prospect for the future.
I share her story to remind you that when you hear the Taliban has banned over a million girls from attending secondary school, these aren’t just numbers. These are my cousins, friends and classmates. These are girls with hopes and dreams and talents; girls whose lives have changed forever over a night.
“It’s hard to believe that my beloved homeland is now the only nation on Earth where girls are not permitted to attend school. It’s also hard to believe that there isn’t more being done about it.”
I feel terrified when I think of a brilliant generation of Afghan girls being denied an education. I get furious when I imagine the future of my country as a land of fire and hell for women. It's hard to believe that my beloved homeland is now the only nation on Earth where girls are not permitted to attend school. It’s also hard to believe that there isn’t more being done about it. I often wonder how people don’t get furious waking up to the fact that millions of girls are being denied their rights. I wonder why those in power who can do something don’t do something.
This week I will be joining Malala Fund at the United Nations where I will be asking the world leaders just that. I plan to urge the international community to take immediate action and put an end to this violation of girls' most basic humanitarian rights. I hope to see world leaders not only condemn the situation but take real steps towards change to get every girl back in school.
I’m so grateful and humbled to be guest editing this special issue of Assembly that focuses on amplifying the voices of other Afghan girls. Their presence in this world is an absolute gift and it’s an honor to speak out alongside them.
For over a year, Afghan girls like me have been sharing our stories and asking for support. I hope this time the world listens.
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