By: Rukhshana Media
Several girls studying at the special school for the blind in northern Balkh province told Rukhshana Media that their school has been closed to girls above the sixth grade since last week, but the boys go to school every day as usual.
Sadia*, a 10th-grade student at the school for the blind in Balkh said, she wished to do her higher studies after graduating from the school, but it has been almost a week since their school has been shut for girls.
“In the past 10 years, I had a dream to become something in the future,” she said. “But we are told to stay at home and only boys are allowed to come to the school.”
“I am very upset and worried because the Taliban closed our school,” Najia, an 11th-grade student of the school said. “We are an exception and we cannot see, at least they should allow us to go to school.”
She urged the Taliban to re-open the school because they want to study and serve the country.
A special school was opened in Balkh for the blind and deaf in 2011, which has more than 300 students, and around eighty of them are girls.
The local Taliban officials in Balkh haven’t commented about the closure of the school yet.
Mazar-e-Sharif is one of few provinces in northern Afghanistan where schools above sixth grade for girls are open.
Note: The names of the students interviewed have been chosen as pseudonyms at their request.
