By Ellaha Rasa
Afsana* says with a smile that she wants to be a psychotherapist in the future. It’s a wish rooted in her experience of severe depression.
Before becoming a student in a secret school in western Herat province, Afsana passed her days stuck at home. She’s been taking anti-depressants for the last two years.
“I was a student in grade 11 when I was denied the right to education after the Taliban took over,” Afsana says.
“I have been locked up in the four walls of the house, but this class allowed me to study.”
Afsana is referring to ‘Door to Door’, an educational initiative launched by the Gahwara organization in Afghanistan’s western Herat province.
Door to Door provides small educational classes in 10 locations across Herat city, its organisers say. At least 265 girls aged seven to 18 years old are receiving an education under the project.
For fellow student Mursal, it’s already making an impact after only three months in the program.
“I was in the 10th grade when the Taliban did not allow us to go to school anymore. I have not seen my teacher and classmates for two years,” she says choking back tears.
But the program is not a fulltime education, so Mursal says her family has decided to leave Afghanistan if the Taliban rule continues.
“We have no hope until the previous government returns and the Taliban are in Afghanistan,” she says.
Each class lasts 24 weeks, in which the four main subjects, including mathematics, physics, biology, and chemistry are taught. Face-to-face classes are about four hours a week.
Teaching to provide hope
Amina*, 22, has five girls gathered in her living room where she is teaching them biology.
She was a student herself at Herat University before the Taliban banned university education for girls and women in 2022.
It’s a risk to teach since the Taliban also banned girls from attending private education institutions.
Taliban forces raided a number of educational centers in Herat city on November 14 last year, forcing female students out of their classes, and sealing the gates of the educational centers closed.
But Amina has not lost hope.
“If the girls sit at home, they become depressed or addicted to their phones due to continuous use of phones and social networks,” she says.
“We must give hope to girls that one day the gates of schools will be opened for them, and girls will be able to use the skills they learn in these classes to shine in the university entrance exam.”
Amina calls every educational opportunity for girls above the sixth grade a spark of civil resistance against the Taliban decrees that have removed their rights and freedom.
“Girls who have skills, as long as the opportunity for education is provided in schools and universities, they can provide education opportunities for other girls in their homes,” she says.
Mothers make the fiercest supporters
Amina sees mothers as the main supporters of girls’ education.
“The majority of our mothers during the first period of Taliban rule in the 1990s were deprived of the right to education for unwanted marriages and went down a path they did not choose,” she says.
“The pain they have suffered is enough for themselves and they do not want their daughters to live an unwanted life.”
Book reading is also part of this educational process which students must compete at home.
Amina’s students have been assigned a variety of books titled Shamdani (candlesticks), Tar-e-Refaqat (the thread of friendship), Qesahay-e-Shabana Baraye Kodakane Shuja (Night stories for brave children) and Sazendagane Donyaye Kohan (the creators of the ancient world).
“The stories of these books are the story of many girls, and by reading motivational books, female students can overcome limitations, and strive to achieve their dreams,” Amina says.
Families open homes to the initiative
Gahwara founder Zabih Mahdi says the educational programs are pitched at helping students study topics that can be harder to self-teach.
“We hire teachers to teach the subjects that are difficult for students to learn individually,” Mr Mahdi said .
The educational programs are conducted in secret at private homes because of the Taliban’s banning of education for girls above the sixth grade.
Mahdi says despite the dangers, families have been very receptive to such educational opportunities.
“We set up classes within the boundaries of family homes, and search for teachers and students in the same area,” Mr Mahdi says.
Study as a form of civil resistance
Parastoo Hakim, an education activist and the founder of the Sarak organization, says these educational opportunities are a kind of constructive civil resistance against the restrictions of the Taliban.
“Girls are getting out of the house and going to home schools,” she says. “They study to think differently and to challenge their limitations.”
She says that with more girls suffering mental disorders and suicide rising under Taliban rule, a secret education is essential.
“The solution to this crisis is to educate a generation that studies in secret schools to provide strong forces of education,” she says.
“They are being transformed and the graduates of these courses can teach other girls individually by returning to their areas and thus expand the education process.”
Taliban extreme attitude towards women
It’s been two years and four months since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. The fundamentalist group claims it has not banned girls’ eduction but rather is preparing the “right conditions” for them to attend.
Taliban Ministry of Education spokesman Mansoor Ahmad told the Associated Press on December 21 that there is no age limit for girls in religious schools.
“Private schools have no age limit and women of any age,” Mr Ahmad told the reporter, referring to religious schools.
Parastoo Hakim says that during the 20 years of the republic government, religious education was provided in schools and universities, and religious schools were never compared to schools and universities.
Today, she says the perception is that the Taliban are using the religious schools as “terrorist manufacturing machines” for the group and will never achieve the education equivalent of the schools and universities the group has banned women from attending.
“The Taliban believe a woman’s place is either at home or in the cemetery. They have no ideas other than locking women in the house and kitchen and for them to give birth to children,” Ms Hakim says.
Former university professor Abdul Hamid Safwat says that those involved in these educational programs for girls must work smartly and take care because of the Taliban have ways of learning about such activities and might punish those involved.
“They can control against gatherings by monitoring citizens through mosques, and if they learn about the existence of secret schools in teachers’ homes, they will turn a possible opportunity into a possible disaster for girls,” he says.
