At least four educational centers in Herat have been forced to close after the Taliban morality police discovered they were allowing female students to attend classes.
Taliban forces raided the centers on Tuesday with some wearing the distinct white uniform of the Vice and Virtue police.
Students at an English-language center preparing for the TOEFL test were told by their teachers to quickly leave the center around 10am on Tuesday after receiving a tip-off.
“At ten o’clock in the morning, ten of my classmates and I were waiting for the class to start when a rumor spread about the arrival of the Taliban forces,” Elnaz, 23, said. “The Taliban in their white shalwars beat the students and forced them out of the center.”
Elnaz said her educational center had some systems in place to try to evade notice, like the start and end times of the lessons.
“We would leave the classes with a delay of fifteen minutes,” she said. “But it seems that the Taliban were still informed.”
Another student, who requested not to be named, said that the administrative director of her educational center in Herat city told her in a phone call on Tuesday that the English language school for girls is closed until Saturday next week.
Some educational centers in Herat had opened to girls six weeks ago under the so-called gender segregation plan of the Taliban, which includes the separation of lessons for girls and boys.
But most educational centers continue to not allow girls for fear of repercussions for students and staff.
When the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in 2021, one of the first decrees was to ban girls’ schools from grade six, and later to ban girls and women from attending university. Many
However, many groups and educational centers throughout Afghanistan continue to teach in secret and online in defiance of the Taliban decree.
