A group of female students in the city of Gardiz, the capital of Paktia province, protested the reclosure of their schools by the Taliban on Saturday.
About 10 days ago, four girls’ schools were opened after a verbal directives of the education director in the province. They were closed again on Saturday by Taliban intelligence, a provincial education ministry employee told Zan Times.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said that after news of the opening of the girls’ schools became public, the Taliban leadership in Kabul ordered them closed once more and also ordered the arrest of their principals.
Female students spontaneously protested in the streets after discovering their schools had been closed on Saturday afternoon. They marched to the Department of Education, chanting slogans with the theme “Education is our right,” the source explained. The protest was met with a heavy-handed response from the Taliban, especially after the crowd grew.
The source says the Taliban arrested five female students, whose whereabouts are unknown.
It has also been reported that the director of the information and culture department of the Taliban in Paktia has threatened journalists not to report the protest.
Zan Times made repeated calls to the head of the Taliban’s information and culture in Paktia but requests for information went unanswered.
It has been 357 days since the Taliban shut down schools for girls above grade 6. So far, protests and opposition by women and girls against the Taliban policy have been violently suppressed.
