Dr. Ajmal Shams
It has been almost three and a half years since the fall of the republic in Afghanistan. A lot has changed since then both in the country and in the global political landscape. What remains unchanged, though, is the plight of women and girls in Afghanistan. The doors of schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions are permanently closed for them, as if they are being punished for some heinous crime. The same goes for places of work for women.
When questioned, Taliban officials argue that the development of relevant procedures, revised curricula and a framework for Afghan girls and women’s education is underway. These efforts are supposedly to align the education system with Islamic Sharia. It is a dilemma that the Taliban are arbitrarily recreating Islamic principles and redefining the foundations of Afghan values for which they have neither the political legitimacy nor the religious credibility. While on the face of it they might be justifying this based on their own narrow and ultraconservative interpretation of Islam, in reality it is aimed at serving their political interests. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have left the county for neighboring Pakistan, Iran and the countries of Central Asia.
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