Five Years Deprived of Education; The Story of Girls Who Replaced School With Hard Labour

Photo: AI

The deprivation of girls from education has entered its fifth year, years that for many schoolgirls have been marked by forced marriage, worsening mental health problems, hard labour, isolation, confusion and being kept away from the path of education and their dreams.

Nearly five years after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and consolidated its exclusive rule, girls have remained deprived of education. After years of waiting for schools and universities to reopen, a number of girls have now turned to hard labour and say the ban on education has distanced them from their dream of studying and forced them to struggle for a piece of bread.

These students speak of their school memories and longing at a time when they no longer have much hope that schools will reopen or that their lessons will resume.

They say the five lost years are irreparable, and after a long wait, they have been forced to turn to work such as carpet weaving, tailoring, street vending and embroidery, jobs they do for low wages and under difficult conditions.

Aziza is one of the students who was studying in the ninth grade. If schools had not been closed, she would now be in her first year of university, attending her classes instead of sitting behind a sewing table. She says she was forced to take up tailoring to cope with the depression she developed after being deprived of education.

Aziza speaks about the difficulties of tailoring work, “I start tailoring at seven in the morning and continue until four in the afternoon. Sometimes I even forget lunch and cannot eat because I have to work. These days, there is no trace of dreaming anymore. It is as if I have completely run out of strength and am just getting through life. There are no lessons, no school. I just go to work and return home.”

Aziza considers her memories of school and the days she spent with her classmates to be the best days of her life. She says that if girls had known they would no longer be able to go to school, they would have made more beautiful memories and would not have complained about any exam.

he says, “One of the beautiful memories I have from school, and one that has come to my mind like a spark again and again over these five years, is from a day when I was walking with my friends in the schoolyard. After the painful explosion that had happened at our school, many sentences had been written on the walls, and we read them aloud. One sentence I will never forget was, My homeland, I will build you. In the end, I will build you myself.”

Aziza adds, “I do not know how to express how much I miss going to school, and how much I miss the jokes, conversations and laughter with my classmates. Most of all, I miss the stress and worries of exams. If we had known such a day would come, we would never have complained about exams.”

Nilofar is another student who has turned to hard labour and weaves carpets from morning until evening. She works alongside her elderly father in difficult economic conditions to meet her family’s needs.

While missing school and dreaming of going to university, Nilofar describes the hardships of carpet weaving:

“After the schools were closed, I was forced to weave carpets. Carpet weaving is very hard work and has even caused me injuries several times. But I am forced to work because I have to help my elderly father, who is unable to work, and also save myself from depression.”

Nilofar still hopes that one day she will be able to resume her studies, but she does not know from which grade she would have to begin after schools reopen.

She says, “It has been almost five years since I was deprived of going to school, but I hope that one day the school doors will reopen for girls and we will once again be able to continue our studies. At the same time, I worry about which grade I would have to start from when schools reopen. I dreamed of going to university and studying law, but reaching my dream has become more distant. Even so, I am certain that one day I will achieve my dreams. That is why sometimes I return to my school books and read a few pages to relive the sweet memories of school.” Asnat is a sixth grade student and, under the restriction imposed by the Taliban, this will be her final academic year. She says with concern, “This is the last year I will go to school, and that is why I am very upset. I dream of becoming an engineer and serving my people. That is why I want the Taliban not to prevent girls from going to school.”

Marzia is another girl deprived of school. After a long wait, she too has been forced to take up tailoring, work that has caused her to forget lessons and school and struggle for a piece of bread. Like a number of other students, Marzia misses school and her classmates, and says she no longer has hope that the doors of schools will reopen.

She says, “Tailoring is very hard work. I did not expect that one day I would be forced to do this. I wanted to become a doctor and wear my white coat instead of sewing clothes, but suddenly everything was destroyed. Our five years passed in vain, and this is irreparable. I no longer have hope that the doors of schools will reopen and girls will study.”

The bitter accounts of girls deprived of education reflect a setback whose consequences are not limited to their individual lives, but also affect the future of society.

This comes as female students say that over the past five years, the deprivation of girls from school has become normalised among the public, and public silence has made it easier for this situation to continue.