Afghanistan's Lost Generation

The Taliban are turning boys’ schools into jihadist training grounds

- BY SORAYA AMIRI AND SAMIA MADWAR

WHEN THE Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, Aman and Zaynab encouraged their children to keep going to school. (For their safety, the couple asked that pseudonyms be used for this story, and only first names.) At first, their two older boys, who are now fifteen and thirteen, resisted. Their favourite subjects, including English and science, weren't being taught anymore, and their new teachers were rough with them.

Aman and Zaynab felt school was still worthwhile, even under the new circumstances. Both are former teachers, and Aman served as a district education director in one of Afghanistan’s provinces. But late last year, the family fled the country. Their primary reason: school had simply become too dangerous for their kids.

Within weeks of their takeover in 2021, the Taliban, who now form Afghanistan’s de facto government, began making sweeping changes to school curricula. They cut courses they considered westernized and, in their view, anti-Islamic, such as civics, art, cultural studies, and human rights. They banned girls from continuing past grade six, and they segregated classrooms. Taliban soldiers patrolled schools, carrying guns, to make sure these orders were followed.

Taliban authorities fired most female secondary-school teachers or stopped paying them until they were forced to quit, often replacing them with underqualified men. In many cases, these were ulema, or religious scholars, with few teaching credentials. Male teachers and administrators were told to grow out their beards and wear traditional dress, including turbans.

Any remaining female teachers were forced to cover their faces and told to teach only the Quran. When Zaynab tried to comply, she was told she wasn’t doing it correctly. After a year, she left her job. She continued teaching girls in secret for some months but stopped after Taliban authorities began following her and asking questions.