[AlAhram] Atiya Azimi was up all night packing and repacking her bag, feverish at returning to school for the first time since the Taliban ...Arabic for students... seized control of Afghanistan.
The joy was shockingly brief.
In the middle of a lesson, just hours after the school reopened, she learned the hardline Islamists had revoked permission for girls to study.
"Suddenly we were told to leave until another order is issued," said Azimi, who was returning to grade 12 at Zarghona Girls School in the capital Kabul.
"What have we done wrong? Why should women and girls face this situation? I ask the Islamic Emirate to start our classes."
"I did not sleep the whole night thinking about going back to school again," she told AFP.
Secondary school age girls have been out of education for around a year in many provinces.
Schools were first closed under the previous US-backed government as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak, and after the Taliban took power the new rulers reopened all schools for boys.
But girls were allowed to return only to primary schools and were banned from secondary schools in most areas.
The Islamists claimed that schools needed to be adapted so girls and boys could be segregated, despite the vast majority of schools in conservative Afghanistan already operating separate classrooms.
The Taliban's education ministry weeks ago announced that girls' secondary schools would reopen for the start of the new academic year on Wednesday.
The 11th hour U-turn, which has yet to be explained by the Taliban, was a devastating blow for students.
"Our hopes were high but now they are shattered," said Muthahera Arefi, 17, turning around from a Kabul school to head home.
Across the country, groups of jubilant girls had arrived at schools on Wednesday morning carrying their bags and books, greeting their former classmates with grins and chatter.
At Rabia Balkhi school in the capital, girls were not able to even make it through the school gates.
"They denied us entry into the school. It's heartbreaking for my girls," said a mother who asked not to be named.
One of her two daughters, both with a hijab covering their hair, was brimming with tears.
"I was looking forward to meeting my friends again, to be together again," said the girl, who also asked not to be named.
The Taliban ...Arabic for students... ordered girls' secondary schools in Afghanistan to shut down on Wednesday just hours after they reopened, an official confirmed, sparking confusion and heartbreak over the policy reversal by the hardline group.
"Yes, it's true," Taliban front man Inamullah Samangani told AFP when asked to confirm reports that girls had been ordered home.
He would not immediately explain the reasoning, while education ministry front man Aziz Ahmad Rayan said: "We are not allowed to comment on this."
The international community has made the right to education for all a sticking point in negotiations over aid and recognition of the new Taliban regime, with several nations and organizations offering to pay teachers.
On Wednesday, the order for girls' secondary schools to resume appeared to only be patchily observed, with reports emerging from some parts of the country — including the Taliban's spiritual heartland of Kandahar — that classes would restart next month instead.
But several did reopen in the capital and elsewhere, including Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... and Panjshir — temporarily at least.
"All the students that we are seeing today are very happy, and they are here with open eyes," Latifa Hamdard, principal of Gawharshad Begum High School in Herat, told AFP.
Even if schools do reopen fully, barriers to girls returning to education remain, with many families suspicious of the Taliban and reluctant to allow their daughters outside.
Others see little point in girls learning at all.
"Those girls who have finished their education have ended up sitting at home and their future is uncertain," said Heela Haya, 20, from Kandahar, who has decided to quit school.
"What will be our future?"
It is common for Afghan pupils to miss chunks of the school year as a result of poverty or conflict, and some continue lessons well into their late teens or early twenties.
Human Rights Watch also raised the issue of the few avenues girls are given to apply their education.
"Why would you and your family make huge sacrifices for you to study if you can never have the career you dreamed of?" said Sahar Fetrat, an assistant researcher with the group.
The education ministry acknowledged authorities faced a shortage of teachers — with many among the tens of thousands of people who fled the country as the Taliban swept to power.
"We need thousands of teachers and to solve this problem we are trying to hire new teachers on a temporary basis," the front man said.
#3
Think of the fools who believed that the US must help the islamics fight off Brehhnev's campaign. Now think of the same kind of fools cheering Zelensky and sending him and his murderous scum weapons and kisses. That is what only propaganda and not enough awareness does to people.
Posted by: Chris ||
03/24/2022 11:05 Comments ||
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#5
Sorry but it's not our problem
Posted by: Whater Dark Lord of the Algonquins4157 ||
03/24/2022 11:31 Comments ||
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#6
CTHU
Brezhnev was only in power until 1982. Three other leaders of the USSR continued the war, the last being Gorbachev (whose chairmanship of the CP began in 1985).
In retrospect the US probably did too much in the way of helping the anti Soviet forces and to that extent the majoritarian view agrees with you. However, the anti Soviet forces were not dominated by the Taliban until pretty late in the conflict.
There are people who claim that the US help to the anti Soviet Afghan side (and in terms of dollars it wasn't that much) bled the USSR and accelerated the collapse of the USSR. That, of course, can not be proved but also not disproved.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
03/24/2022 11:33 Comments ||
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#7
Afghanistan certainly didn't help the Soviet Union but here is what Gorbachev says:
Turning Point at Chernobyl, by Mikhail Gorbachev, Project Syndicate: The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl 20 years ago this month, even more than my launch of perestroika, was perhaps the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union five years later. Indeed, the Chernobyl catastrophe was an historic turning point: there was the era before the disaster, and there is the very different era that has followed. ...
As for the girls, we got their hopes up and now they're crushed. Sorry. Eventually we may see that American intervention in Afghanistan planted the seeds for change. Hard to say.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/24/2022 11:45 Comments ||
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#8
In retrospect the US probably did too much in the way of helping the anti Soviet forces
Don't take it personally Lord Garth, but you understand that sounds like a really bad 'oops!'
And that was the exact attitude of the US establishment after every major intervention anywhere.
[Garowe] China has intensified campaigns to strengthen its relationship with Somalia as it seeks to expand ties with Africa, a continent believed to be full of resources and potential to compete with economic bigwigs.
For the last decade, China has invested massively in Africa and has even tried to establish military bases further threatening traditional allies such as the United States, Germany, and Britannia. The US has come out open to fire warning shots to China.
On Tuesday, Somalia's Foreign Affairs Minister Abdisaid Muse held talks with Chinese counterpart Wangi Yi. Muse is attending the 48th session of the Council of Foreign Affairs ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Reports indicate the two discussed ways of improving cooperation between the two countries and how they can mutually work together on matters of security, humanitarian affairs, fishery, and regional issues. Both countries have huge interests in the sectors.
Abdisaid Muse also seized the opportunity to eulogize victims it Boeing 737-800 crash of Eastern Airlines of China which crashed in the southern part of the country, killing over 132 people who were on board.
Fundamentally, the two emphasized the importance of maintaining and furthering the long-standing relations between the two countries that are based on respect for territorial integrity, independence, politics, and the unity of the Federal of Somalia and China.
While China is fighting to protect interests in the Republic of China [Taiwan], Somalia is also facing a similar challenge in Somaliland. China has proposed a military base in the Horn of Africa but such attempts have often faced resistance from the US.
[Garowe] The ongoing war in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... is directly to blame for restlessness and internal conflicts within the Horn of Africa, a report published by the Freestar notes, with Somalia, now being the most affected country within Africa.
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) March 23, 2022
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) emphasized on Wednesday that a military and political strategy should be developed to prevent ISIS, which continuously endeavours to capture some of Syria’s land, warning that ISIS sleeper cells are still posing a major threat.
In March 23, 2019, the SDF announced liberating the last stronghold of ISIS in Baghouz town in Deir ez-Zor countryside.
The general command of the SDF said “ISIS was trying to find a foothold to expand and attract other possible worldwide members.”
In a statement published in the third anniversary of driving ISIS out of its last stronghold in Baghouz, the SDF pointed out that the last attack on al-Sina’a prison in Hasakah “is a proof to ISIS ongoing threat in light of the international community negligence to find a solution.”
Moreover, the statement warned that the lack of an international comprehensive plan to settle the condition of the ISIS members and their families held in prisons and camps and to provide sufficient support to rebuild the ISIS-battle-damaged areas “increase human and economic costs”.
The SDF criticized the irresponsibility of some countries toward its ISIS nationals and their failure to give the necessary assistance required to establish an international court in northeastern Syria.
The statement indicated that these approaches affect the previous years’ efforts in fighting ISIS, let alone enabling it to overcome its setbacks.
The general command of the SDF invited the member states of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS to back them in their long war and put a clear military, security and political strategy to prevent ISIS return.
The SDF statement also invited the international community to “support stabilization and economic and community developments, as well as preventing other actors, particularly Turkey, of diminishing the SDF and people achievements which cost the lives of thousands of martyrs”.
Reporting by Adnan Hamo
Posted by: badanov ||
03/24/2022 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[18 views]
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#1
Two Word Strategy: Donald Trump.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/24/2022 12:43 Comments ||
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Egypt and the UK coordinated on Tuesday to exchange security expertise in their fight against terrorism during a seminar organized by the Armed Forces in Cairo.
Military officials and academics from both countries attended the Egyptian-British Seminar for Counterterrorism 2022, which is held as part of joint efforts between both countries to counter mutual challenges.
Speaking at the gathering, Chairman of the Military Intelligence Service Maj. Gen. Khaled Megawer welcomed the British delegation, stressing the importance of exchanging expertise to keep abreast of developments regarding terrorism.
Megawer discussed Egypt’s success story in fighting terrorism, which he said relies on scientific basis to face the root causes of the phenomenon.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Arabic for 
...Arabic for 
