In the clergy’s summary of resolutions at the gathering, to the dismay of many, there was no announcement about girls’ education and the possibility of allowing them to return to full-time education. After watching that an announcement was on the way, the Taliban did not take the decision to let secondary school girls study after banning them when they came to power last year. It was a decision that caused consternation in the international community, human rights activists and the organization itself. Many local leaders across Afghanistan believe it is against Islam to ban girls from receiving an education and have called on the Taliban leadership to reverse their decision. Elaha and her sister Elhama should both be going to high school and studying for crucial exams, but the Taliban’s reversal means they are both now learning from each other in their bedroom rather than the classroom. Elaha, 16, told Sky News: “I remember that time when the Taliban stopped us from going to school. It was a very bad time and a sad time because we need education for the future, for life and we need work. “I will have to tell people that I couldn’t go to school, I don’t have an education because the Taliban didn’t let me.” Reacting to the news of the big council meeting, he added: “I don’t trust them and I can never trust them because they break every promise they make to the people. “They said women will work in every ministry, but that’s not true. They said every girl can go to school, but that’s not true – I just don’t understand them.” Image: Elaha (R) and her sister Elhama (L) And how do you get elementary school girls to understand? In a school in Kabul, children in the 6th grade are scared and sad that they will not go to class next year. But it’s a policy that’s painful for teachers, too. Fatima Amid recently graduated from university, is now a teacher at the District 3 school, and has left her to tell her students that they cannot return for high school classes. “We’re not women from 20 years ago,” she tells us. “The Taliban want to appease all women by saying today we will open schools, tomorrow we will open schools or a month after – but nothing happens at the end of the day. They want to deceive all the women of Afghanistan.” Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 0:40 Fatima told Sky News it was ‘really sad’ and ‘really a shame’ for the Taliban government The international community will also feel cheated. Western governments such as the US and the UK are counting on the Taliban government to reverse its decision so that diplomatic talks and relations can improve. When the decision was made last year to ban girls from school, Afghanistan was cut off from most of the world, billions of dollars in assets were frozen, so when a major earthquake struck Paktika province last week the international response was limited. Image: Teacher Fatima Amid Eyewitness: ‘My house is a graveyard now’ – aftermath of deadly Afghanistan earthquake Some Taliban officials saw it as a wake-up call as they saw their country struggling to cope with a major natural disaster. Women on the streets of Kabul told us how they were disappointed, sad and angry that they heard nothing about girls’ education during the three-day meeting. “It’s very painful,” one student told us. “They just don’t agree with our rights.” Another woman added: “I saw the Taliban 20 years ago, there is no difference this time, in fact, they are even worse.” The Taliban were adamant that they were going to fulfill their promise. Deputy spokesman Bilal Karimi told Sky News: “Right now there are millions of boys and girls going to schools and universities, the doors of the schools are not closed. The decisions of this meeting were taken by the Islamic clerics and not by the government of the Taliban. We are still considering this policy.” But once again at the center of today’s political decision-making are millions of young women and girls across Afghanistan – for whom hope is in short supply.
