Afghan girls turn to Taliban-run madrashas after being banned from schools

A group of girls wearing black face veils silently enter a madrasah in Afghanistan's central province of Ghor.

Inside the Islamic seminary, dozens of teenage girls sit on the floor, rocking back and forth, as they recite the Koran, Islam's holy book.

Among them is Zohra Jalali, who was in her final year of school when the Taliban seized power in 2021. The militant group soon banned girls above the sixth grade from attending school, shattering her dream of becoming a doctor.

Jalili is now among the thousands of teenage girls who have enrolled in Taliban-run madrasahs as a last resort to continue their education. The militants have allowed girls of all ages to study at seminaries in Afghanistan, a predominately Muslim country of around 40 million.

"We want our regular schools to be open," the 18-year-old told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. "Besides religious education, we also want to study other subjects."

The Taliban has vowed to root out all forms of the modern secular education that thrived in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 toppled the Taliban's first regime.

Since regaining power, the militants have converted scores of secular schools, public universities, and vocational training centers into Islamic seminaries, leading to a surge in the number of madrasahs in the country.

The Islamist group has also vowed to overhaul the national curriculum and build a vast network of madrasahs across the country's 34 provinces.

Tamina Qudusi, a former university student, told Radio Azadi that the Taliban's attitude toward modern education is self-destructive.

"How can we [Afghans] stand on our own feet if we don't have [modern] education?" she asked. "Uneducated women won't be able to achieve anything."

Qudusi enrolled in a madrasah in the northern province of Parwan after the Taliban banned women from studying at universities in December. She said attending a seminary would allow her to at least receive some form of education.

At Taliban-run madrasahs, Afghan girls learn to read and memorize the Koran, which is written in Arabic, a language that few Afghans understand. They also learn about the teachings and sayings of Prophet Muhammad.

Neda Rahmani, a former university student from the southwestern province of Nimroz, said limiting education to religious studies is a detriment to Afghanistan, where men and women are needed in all fields, including in education, health, and even the security sector.

"The Taliban needs to invest time in thinking through and understanding the role of women in this county," said the 21-year-old, who also attends a madrasah.

The Taliban has defended its efforts to root out modern secular education.

Mawlawi Abdul Jabbar Saqib, the head of the Taliban's education department in Ghor, said "modern education is not compulsory for women."

"They must get the correct knowledge of religion for themselves and their families," he told Radio Azadi.

But many Afghan religious figures and teachers disagree. They have accused the Taliban of using madrasahs to brainwash the young generation with their extremist ideology and erase modern forms of education.

"We need modern education as much as we need bread and water," said an Islamic scholar in Nimroz who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. "We must have female doctors. We also need women engineers and teachers."

Besides limiting girls and women's education, the Taliban has also imposed severe restrictions on women's appearances, freedom of movement, and their right to work.

Razia Haqshanas, a ninth grader in Parwan, has witnessed girls and women's access to education gradually erode. She fears the Taliban might even ban girls from attending madrasahs.

"My future is dark here," she told Radio Azadi. [RFE/NS]