By Ellaha Rasa
It’s 10.00am in the morning and a group of girls is gathering in a home in the center of Herat city, away from the eyes of the Taliban. They are secretly preparing for Afghanistan’s university entrance exam.
Susan Ahmadi, the 23-year-old teacher, has just completed a mathematics and science training course for the grade 12 graduates. That day’s logarithm lesson was the last and most challenging lesson of the maths, but not as tough as the challenge the girls face getting their education under the Taliban’s de facto government. The religious extremists have banned all education for girls above grade 6 and have closed universities to women.
On July 7, the National Examination Authority of Afghanistan (NEXA) held the third round of the university entrance exams – also known as the Kankor – in Herat and nine other provinces. Girls were not allowed to attend, and there is no information about a date when they might be permitted to do so.
Susan says if the 25 girls she had taught the math and science courses were permitted to sit the exam, she believes they would pass with top marks. “Our lessons have progressed a lot and we have covered some subjects four times,” Susan says. “These are worthy students who will obtain the highest grades for their favorite field of study.”
The secret classes began six-and-a-half months ago at the request of the students. At first, the classes secretly began in Dar ul-Hefaz, an unofficial religious school dedicated to learning the Holy Quran. But on April 5, the Taliban’s intelligence entered the school and warned the director that if the girls continued to be taught there, they will seal the gate of Dar al-Hafaz closed and threatened action against the director, the teachers at the school, and all their families.
Although Susan was not at Dar al-Hefaz at the same time, the Taliban forces took her details and address from the school director. “They told the director, We are aware of the activities being carried out in Dar al-Hafaz, and if we hear about them again, we will seriously deal with you, the teachers, and their families.”
Dar al-Hafaz’s director, fearing the consequences, told Susan she could no longer teach the girls there.
That was when Susan made the highly risky decision to continue teaching from her own home. It was the only hope for the 25 girls who bravely continued to show up, being deprived of all liberty and desperate for an education.
Susan, originally a dental student before the Taliban took power, lives in Herat city with her family of seven people. After graduating from school, she had taught math and physics for five years in a private school in Herat province for students who were sitting the Kankor. But with the Taliban takeover of the country and the immediate ban on high school girls education, she became unemployed and forced to stay inside the house.
Despite the Taliban saying many times they were working to reopen girls schools, the hollow and false pledges are no longer believed. Over 700 days have passed since the school gates were closed to girls.
“Some women and girls wonder whether studying while living in Afghanistan has any benefit for them or not,” says Susan. “But I tell the students, we don’t know how long the Taliban will rule. So the only thing we can do is study.”
Susan says that most of the girls including herself struggle with the mental pressure of living under Taliban rule. The two years since the group took power have been the most difficult days of her life and she has suffered from depression. “Every day they make us more desperate to the extent that most days I feel bad and cry internally,” she says. “This is not only my situation, but many women and girls are suffering with mental illnesses. We are suffering and this situation is really unbearable for me.”
In the face of these hardships, Susan launched with her older sister Aram Ahmadi the Mathematics and Science educational program for girls to escape isolation and seclusion during at least two hours of teaching.
Aram graduated from Herat University’s Faculty of Law and Political Science six years ago and had worked for two years as an attorney defending women. She says that before the Taliban took over, she was handling about three cases of violence against women per month, but since August 2021 when she lost her work as a defense lawyer, she now instead teaches girls.
Before establishing the educational unit, one of Susan’s first moves was to participate in demonstrations against the Taliban’s restrictions. She has continued to attend demonstrations to demand the return of basic human rights for girls and women.
She recalls one she attended on October 3, 2022, at the gate of Herat University, and another on December 25, 2022, in front of Herat provincial office. The common chants were slogans such as, “Women, education, freedom” and “Don’t deprive us of education”.
Susan says that during the protest in front of Herat University, a male student called her and the other protesters “Infidels” and told them that they were imitating American reactions.
In videos that were widely shared on social media, Susan faces off with the armed Taliban forces. She can be seen standing her ground and defending her right to education while addressing the armed men. “Allah said that education is mandatory for men and women. How can you call us infidels who are protesting for our rights? Just because your faith is not perfect, you call us infidels,” she told them.
At that time, the Taliban forces shut down the protest with violence, firing their weapons directly overhead and throwing stones at the protesters. “The Taliban were shooting. At any moment it was possible that a bullet from Talib’s gun would hit us. Another number of Taliban attacked the girls by throwing stones and beating them with sticks. One of them even held a rifle above the forehead of one of the protestors and drugged [concussed?] her.”
The protest in front of Herat Provincial office was also violently dealt with. “The Taliban attacked each protester with a stick at the demonstration in front of the provincial office,” she says. “After a few minutes, they used water cannons, and each of us had to run away from the area and disperse.”
Susan says she will continue to protest in street demonstrations to gain the basic rights and freedoms that have been restricted during the Taliban rule. “If I have the smallest way to defend my rights, even for a moment I will not allow fear in me,” she says. “I will shout the words that are in my heart and I will not be silent.”
On December 27, 2022, Susan wrote the slogan, “Education for everyone or no one” on the walls of Amir Alishir Nawayi school and the walls of Khwaja Abdullah Ansari road. She says after three days of passing that route, those slogans were removed from the walls.
Susan criticizes the international community for their passivity saying with the Taliban increasing restrictions on women every day with new orders, the international community appears to make no effort to pressure them to reopen schools and universities to Afghan girls. “This is painful,” she says. “Many countries interact with the Taliban while women and girls are deprived of the right to work and study.”
Despite the severe suppression, Susan’s story is just one of many of how girls and women have refused to give up or surrender to the Taliban’s restrictions and are working together in every possible way to have their voices heard.
