Afghans are against sending their daughters to schools

DPA – Islamabad

The Taliban’s education minister has said that the closure of schools is a cultural issue, adding that Afghans, especially in remote areas, are against sending their teenage girls to school.

Minister Noorullah Munir made the remarks on Sunday during a trip to Uruzgan province.“We know the culture here,” the senior Taliban leader explained.

“Mostly, the governments have not paid attention to this culture, which has caused uprisings and fatwas to be issued against the government.” The remarks are made a day after the Taliban closed several schools that were opened at the request of local elders in the traditional province of Paktia. In protest, dozens of girls rallied in the city of Gardiz.

Many Afghans voiced their support for the schoolgirls.

“The call of the female students in Paktia for reopening the girls’ schools is the call of all our daughters, the wish of Afghanistan,” former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a statement on Sunday.

Women rights activists in Kabul sent videotapes to journalists praising the bravery of Paktia girls while chanting “The Taliban are afraid of educated women.”

– Ranjith Perera –