Taliban ban girls over age of 10 from schools

Taliban in Afghanistan have banned girls over the age of 10 from attending school in some provinces of the country, according to a BBC Persian report.

BBC Persian quoted sources as saying that officials from the Taliban-ruled Ministry of Education in the province of Ghazni have informed the heads of schools and short-term training programmes that "girls over 10 years old are not allowed to study in primary schools".

The report says that in some regions the 'Ministry for Preaching and Guidance', previously known as the Women's Affairs Ministry, requested the heads of girls schools to send home any female students who were studying beyond third grade.

A student of class six from eastern Afghanistan said, "We were told that girls who are tall and over 10 years old are not allowed to enter the school."

In December last year, Taliban officials announced a ban on women from educational institutes and it drew widespread condemnation from foreign governments and the United Nations. "You all are informed to immediately implement the mentioned order of suspending education of females until further notice," Minister for Higher Education Neda Mohammad Nadeem said in a letter issued to all government and private universities last year.

The Taliban enforced the restriction, claiming that female students disregarded a stringent dress code and a necessity to be accompanied to and from university campuses by a male relative. The majority of colleges and universities had already implemented gender-specific entrances, classrooms and policies permitting only older men or women professors to teach female students, according to the outlet.

The education ban is one of many restrictions placed on women since the Taliban regime retook control in August 2021. Women in the country have also been banned from going to parks, gyms, fairs, salons and must cover themselves in public. Many have also been removed from their government jobs.