KABUL: The Taliban will allow girls around Afghanistan to return to class when high schools open next week, an education official said on Thursday, after months of uncertainty over whether the group would allow full access to education for girls and women.

       “All schools are going to open to all boys and girls,” Aziz Ahmad Rayan, a spokesman for the Ministry of Education, said.

       “But there are some conditions for girls,” he said, adding that female students would be taught separately from males and only by female teachers. In some rural areas where there was a shortage of female teachers, he said that older male teachers would be allowed to teach girls.

       “There is no school that will close for this year. If there is any school that closes, it is the responsibility of the education ministry to open it,” Rayan added.

       Allowing girls and women into schools and colleges has been one of the key demands the international community has made of the hardline Islamist movement since it toppled the Western-backed government last August.

       Most countries have so far refused to formally recognise the Taliban, amid concerns over their treatment of girls and women and allegations of human rights abuses against former soldiers and officials from the ousted administration. The Taliban have vowed to investigate alleged abuses, and say they are not seeking revenge on their former enemies.

       The last time the group ruled Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001, they banned female education and most employment. Since regaining power, boys and men have returned to education in far greater number than girls and women.

       Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2022