The Dried Pen: The War on Education for Women in Afghanistan

When I wear my hijab, I drape it with pride. I drape it with intention. Every time I wear it to school, I know that these are my rights—to wear my hijab and to pursue an education. So, girls across the world with eyes like mine and dreams as ambitious as my own have no less of a right to an education than I do. However, under the misleading guise of religion, the Taliban has taken away the right to education for Afghan women and girls. Even though Islam has produced educated Muslim women of great caliber, the Taliban subjects Afghan women to lives without the right to education using their corrupted Islamic laws. It is not the religion itself that oppresses women. The Taliban hide behind a veil of their misinterpretation of Islam, which suppresses the potential and values of Afghan women. 

After taking control of Afghanistan, the Taliban set out to make the country a strict Islamic state. During their 1996 to 2001 rule, women and girls were subject to heedless bouts of misogyny accompanied by strict punishment if they did not comply with the law. These women and girls were barred from countless other rights. They were banned from studying, working, and leaving the country. The women of Afghanistan were no longer given a voice and thus subject to silence—a terror felt deeply by all who faced it.

However, United States intervention after September 11, 2001 drove the Taliban out of Afghanistan, allowing for women to return back to work and girls to resume their education. In fact, women’s rights were taken into account when Afghanistan adopted the Elimination of Violence Against Women law. As a result of the United States’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban sought power once again. All the progress made for women’s rights seemed to instantaneously disappear. Once more, Afghan women and girls are not allowed to attend secondary school, work, or appear on television; they must be accompanied by a man in public. September 17, 2024 marks three years of the Taliban’s ban on secondary education for girls.  This ban deprives women of the opportunity to thrive in their country, and it is an unmistakable act of misogyny. As a result, Afghanistan has lost the potential for female doctors, teachers, and professionals to serve in their communities and contribute to their country. 

Women of Afghanistan who once studied and had jobs now detail their present lives with deep sorrow. A 24 year old woman who lost her job at a private company explains, “My average day is very boring because I stay at home and have no job. We don’t even have [the right to] a recreation or a pastime.” Other women express worry for their futures, stating, “I feel desperate because I can’t foresee my future. Even if I read or do something useful, I can’t see my place in the future […] Sometimes, when there’s no work at home, I move the furniture around to cope with the mental stress.” A 20-year-old university student describes, “Whenever I pass my university, only God knows the pain in my heart […] I miss studying at university in the summer heat and the cold of winter; [I miss] being hungry and thirsty there.” This loss of a right to receive an education and work has had a larger effect than passing boredom or worry. The Taliban’s restrictions on Afghan women have deprived women of who they once were—people with hopes and dreams, just like women across the rest of the world. Now, they long for the struggles they once had studying and working, for these issues pale in comparison to the ones they deal with today. Education, which should be an inalienable right for all, has become an unattainable dream for Afghan women under corrupted Islamic law. 

Surah Al-Mujadila (58:11) of the Holy Quran states, “Allah will raise those who have believed among you and those who were given knowledge, by degrees.” This verse testifies that seeking knowledge is an act of worship within itself—an act that does not exclude women. Education is considered a divine command for both men and women, regardless of gender. With over 800 references to ilm, meaning “knowledge,” the Quran urges both men and women to seek knowledge and enlighten themselves.  

There are many notable Muslim women who have exemplified Islam’s encouragement to seek knowledge. In fact, Fatima al-Fihri, a well-educated Muslim woman, is known to have built the first university in the world—the Qarawiyyin Mosque established in the year 859. Students from all across the world traveled to the mosque to study a variety of subjects, ranging from Islamic studies to the sciences. This university set the example for the modern university system. Mathematician Sutayta Al-Mahāmali, who demonstrated high aptitude in algebra, invented a plethora of solutions to equations. During the tenth century, she was considered an expert in arithmetics and successoral calculations. In the present day, Muslim women make waves in countless fields of study. In 2015, Mariam Al-Otaibi and Bedour Al-Maghrabi invented glasses for people with cerebral blindness to help them see objects in their surroundings. These Muslim women, along with numerous others, are proof to the fact that Islam does not, and has never, restricted education for women. On the contrary, the teachings of Islam serve as motivation for all people to educate themselves in efforts to discover their world’s complexities. 

On this note, if Islam does not restrict women’s education but encourages it, then there arises a question of why the Taliban feels the need to do so. The answer lies in cultural bias and a fear of female individualism and power. The Taliban consists of orphaned refugee boys between the ages of 14 and 24 years, whose teachers, called “mullahs,” have instilled the idea that women are a source of temptation. These boys, who are often without a mother or sister, grew to believe that the only way to prevent the country from entering “chaos” was by controlling their temptations—not by disciplining themselves, but by disciplining women. It became easier to lock women and girls at home as exhorted by their wrongfully educated mullahs rather than to explore true Islamic law. This continuous chain of corrupted Islamic education has passed through generations of the Taliban, and this has only exacerbated restrictions; the motivation behind their rulings on women’s rights has primarily been fear. 

The laws that the Taliban have enacted to serve as restrictions for women are incredibly extensive. They have deliberately gone against Islamic law, despite portraying themselves as supporting the religion. In 2021, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Political Office in Doha stated while clarifying their adherence to Islamic law that, “As for women, they can have their basic rights as per Islamic rules.” Islamic rules clearly define the right for women to work and be educated. The laws that the Taliban have enacted do not. On October 6, 2022, hundreds of girls were expelled in Kandahar as a result of verbal instruction from the Taliban’s education authorities. On October 7, 2022, the Taliban blocked women from choosing agriculture, mining, civil engineering, veterinary medicine, or journalism as their university major, saying that these fields are “too difficult” for women. Fighting in a war is also difficult, which Nusaybah Bint Ka’ab (ra) did while defending the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and Islam from all directions during her battles, all while being a mother and wife. On October 20, 2023, the Taliban’s Ministry of Economy instructed that women are not permitted to hold the position of director within a non-governmental organization. However, Khadijah al-Kubra (ra), the esteemed wife of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and first ever Muslim woman, was a successful business-owner and one of the most distinguished of her time. Numerous other laws enacted by the Taliban that try to suppress the empowerment of women under the guise of religion actually have no basis in Islam.

It is thus, while wearing my hijab and attending school, that I write this article. The women and girls of Afghanistan have been subjected to baseless misogynistic laws plaguing their people for far too long. For a country to succeed, it must support all its people and empower women and girls. It is our responsibility to continue spreading awareness about the struggles of Afghan women and emphasize the Taliban’s wrongdoings. We must not stop advocating for the rights that have been taken away from these women until there is a Afghanistan where every woman is allowed to work, and every girl is allowed to study. We must not let their pens dry.