Dreams on hold: Afghan girls and women are desperate to get back to class

The hardline Islamist Taliban movement, which stormed to power earlier this year after ousting the Western-backed government, has allowed all boys and younger girls back to class, but has not let girls attend secondary school

Zohra Bensemra/Reuters

Main image:
Female primary school students leave school after a class in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photograph: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters

  • Hadia, 10, a fourth-grade primary school student, walks back from school through an alleyway near her home in Kabul
    Hadia, 10, a 4th grade primary school student, walks back from school through an alleyway near her home in Kabul

  • Hadia student attends a class in Kabul
    Hadia, 10, a 4th grade primary school student attends a class in Kabul,

  • Hadia (centre) leaves school after a class in Kabul. “I want to be a doctor, but if in two years’ time I will not be allowed to continue my studies like my sister, I won’t be able to fulfil my dream,” said Hadia. “That already scares me”
    Hadia (Centre), 10, a 4th grade primary school student, leaves school after a class in Kabul. “I’m in the 4th grade. I want to be a doctor, but if in two years’ time I am not be allowed to continue my studies like my sister, I won’t be able to fulfil my dream,” said Hadia. “That already scares me.”

  • Sahar, 17, an 11th-grade secondary school student, helps her sister, Hadia, with her homework after school at their home in Kabul. Sahar wants to become an engineer, but, for now at least, has to learn at home as best she can. “I am trying to continue my lessons at home but nevertheless the environment at school, the classroom, our friends and teachers is something different compared to being at home”
    Sahar, 17, an 11th grade secondary school student, helps her sister, Hadia, 10, a 4th grade primary school student, with her homework after school at their home in Kabul. Sahar wants to become an engineer, but, for now at least, has to learn at home as best she can. “I am trying to continue my lessons at home but nevertheless the environment at school, the classroom, our friends and teachers is something different compared to being at home.”

  • Sahar helps her sister, Hadia, with her homework
    Sahar, 17, an 11th grade secondary school student, helps her sister, Hadia, 10, a 4th grade primary school student, with her homework.

  • Sahar, 17, sits with her sister, Sewita, 19, at their home in Kabul
    Sahar, 17, an 11th grade secondary school student, sits with her sister, Sewita, 19, at their home in Kabul

  • Sahar puts nail polish at home in Kabul
    Sahar, 17, an 11th grade secondary school student, puts nail polish at home in Kabul

  • Sahar shows Reuters her former school, where she was allowed back to sit in the classroom
    Sahar, 17, an 11th grade secondary school student, shows Reuters her former school, where she was allowed back to sit in the classroom

  • Hawa, 20, a third-year Russian literature student at the Burhanuddin Rabbani University (which was renamed by the Taliban to Kabul Education University), reads a book as she sits on a windowsill at her home in Kabul. Like hundreds of thousands of other Afghan girls and young women, Hawa has not been allowed to return to her studies since the Taliban seized power in mid-August. “We are not born to sit at home,” she told Reuters “If we can nurture babies we can provide for our families too. In this situation, I do not see my dreams coming true”
    Hawa, 20, a third-year Russian literature student at the Burhanuddin Rabbani University (which was renamed by the Taliban to Kabul Education University), reads a book as she sits on a windowsill at her home in Kabul. Like hundreds of thousands of other Afghan girls and young women, Hawa has not been allowed to return to her studies since the Taliban seized power in mid-August. “We are not born to sit at home,” she told Reuters “If we can nurture babies we can provide for our families too. In this situation, I do not see my dreams coming true.”

  • Hawa has tea with her sister at their home
    Hawa, 20, a third-year Russian literature student at the Burhanuddin Rabbani University (which was renamed by the Taliban to Kabul Education University), has tea with her sister, at their home.

  • Female primary school students leave school after a class in Kabul
    Female primary school students leave school after a class in Kabul

  • A Taliban fighter gestures to a colleague as he stands by the entrance to a school, in Kabul, Afghanistan
    A Taliban fighter gestures to a colleague as he stands by the entrance to a school, in Kabul, Afghanistan.
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