"Afghan Girls Speak Out: 'No One is Coming to Help' Without School"

Afghan teenage girls are voicing their struggles and despair as they navigate life without access to education. Their heartfelt accounts highlight the profound impact of school closures on their dreams and futures. Despite their resilience, these young girls feel abandoned and in urgent need of support, emphasizing the critical importance of education for their empowerment and well-being. Their stories shed light on the dire situation and call for immediate action.

Boston Brand Media brings you the latest news - Girls in Afghanistan have been denied education for 1,000 days.They are facing forced marriages, violence, and isolation.There is no foreseeable end to their suffering.

Just over three years ago, Asma's* future was full of possibilities. At 15, she was attending secondary school with plans for university and beyond, envisioning a bright future ahead.Like many Afghan girls, she saw education as her escape from the isolation and oppression experienced by her mother and grandmother under the previous Taliban regime.

She belonged to a new generation of Afghan women who had the opportunity to lead independent and economically self-sufficient lives.In May 2021, a few months before the Taliban regained power, Asma was in class when bombs began to explode outside her secondary school.She woke up in the hospital to discover that 85 people, mostly other schoolgirls, had been killed. By the time she started to recover, the Taliban had taken control, ending her chances of returning to school permanently.

It has now been over 1,000 days since the Taliban restricted schools to boys, effectively barring an estimated 1.2 million teenage girls like Asma from secondary education in Afghanistan.

Since then, these girls have faced catastrophic consequences: forced and early marriages, domestic violence, suicide, drug addiction, and complete removal from public life, with no end in sight.

"We've now reached 1,000 days, but there is no end date to the horror of what is happening to teenage girls in Afghanistan," says Heather Barr from Human Rights Watch. "The Taliban haven't just put these girls' dreams on hold; they have destroyed them."

"When I found out my baby was going to be a girl, the world darkened before my eyes. She will never achieve any of her dreams." - Asma

Without being able to go to school, Asma’s fate has followed a predictable path. She was forced into an early marriage with a man she didn't know, trading the four walls of her father’s house for those of her new husband’s family.

Boston Brand Media also found that, Asma pleaded with her parents not to marry her off. “When I talked about my studies and dreams, they laughed and said, ‘Since the Taliban came, girls will never be allowed to study. It’s better to get on with your life and get married,’” Asma recalls. “[After the wedding], my husband’s family told me, ‘We bought you and paid for you. You should be at home and working for us.’”

Now 18 and pregnant, Asma reflects, “When I found out my baby is going to be a girl, the world darkened before my eyes because being a girl here in Afghanistan is not worth it. She will never achieve any of her dreams. I wish I was having a boy.”

With their status in society diminishing and no protection from authorities, teenage girls, especially those forced into early marriages, face domestic violence at home and abuse from authorities outside, say human rights groups.

Marzia notes, “She talks less and sleeps most of the time. The school closure is the reason, but there’s nothing we can do.”

Benafasha* was 13 when the Taliban took power, and her family decided that if she couldn’t go to school, she had to get married. Her sister Qudsia* explains that Benafasha was sent to live with her fiancé, who immediately became violent, brutally beating and abusing the now 16-year-old.

Desperate and frightened, Benafasha went to the Taliban courts to request a separation. Instead, they sent her to prison. “We had pictures demonstrating how he had beaten my sister, and text messages and voice recordings showing how he would insult and beat her,” says Qudsia.

"The judge took her husband's side, saying women are always looking for a small excuse to separate. She was told that as long as she refuses to live with her fiancé, she will remain in prison."

The prospect of a life of social and intellectual isolation and domestic servitude is driving many teenage girls to deep despair.

A United Nations survey last December found that 76% of women and girls who responded rated their mental health as "bad" or "very bad," reporting insomnia, depression, anxiety, loss of appetite, and headaches as a result of their trauma.

Almost one-fifth of girls and women also reported not meeting another woman outside their immediate family in the past three months. Another survey by the Afghan digital platform Bishnaw found that 8% of participants knew at least one woman or girl who had attempted suicide since August 2021.

Marzia*, the mother of 15-year-old Arzo*, says her daughter has become increasingly withdrawn and depressed since she has been unable to return to school. “She talks less and sleeps most of the time,” Marzia says. “I know the reason is the school closure, but there’s nothing we can do. I always dreamed that my daughter would study and become a doctor so she could stand on her own feet.”

Heather Barr from Human Rights Watch says the Taliban have taken away "girls' social networks, their friends, and the outside world." She adds, "They can’t go to school, national parks, beauty salons, the gym, or increasingly outside the house at all without fear of intimidation. They’re taking away everything that makes them human."

She emphasizes that the international community cannot continue to ignore the plight of teenage girls in Afghanistan.

"It is a threat to the rights of all women and girls around the world because if the Taliban can do this with impunity, then who will be next?"

Last month, a report by the UN special rapporteur for Afghanistan assessed the dire situation facing girls and women in the country. “Many [girls now denied a secondary education] are driven to psychological distress, including suicidal thoughts and actions. Denial of access to equal education is causing transgenerational disempowerment that will increasingly ingrain the debased socioeconomic status of Afghan women and girls and their state-enforced dependence on men,” it stated.

Fariah*, a mother of a 16-year-old in Kabul, says that her daughter refuses to give up hope that her life will not always be as it has been for the last three years, but she is close to despair.

"It is a tragedy beyond words, not just for her, but for Afghanistan and the world," she says.

"My daughter is among the smartest of her generation, and I am not just saying this as her mother. I have seen firsthand her strong leadership skills, her ambitions, and her determination to achieve them. Sometimes, my daughter tells me she thinks that, by some miracle, school will be back on. I don’t want to crush her optimistic spirit, so I tell her, 'Yes, that's possible,' but deep down, I know it is a lie. I experienced this regime 25 years ago, and they haven’t changed. I don’t have any hope for our future. Nobody is coming to help us."

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Source: theguardian‍