Afghan girls sent home only hours after schools reopen – in pictures

The Taliban ordered girls' secondary schools to shut and the U-turn was announced shortly after thousands of girls resumed lessons for the first time since August

In this photograph taken on March 20, 2022, school girl Marwa Ayoubi (R) and Madina Mohammadi study at a home in Kandahar. - The reopening of secondary schools for girls across Afghanistan on March 23 has triggered joy and apprehension for tens of thousands of students deprived of education since the Taliban's return to power. (Photo by Javed TANVEER / AFP)

Raihana studies at home in Kunduz province. Education ministers offered no coherent explanation even as officials held a ceremony in the capital to mark the start of the academic year, and said it was a matter for the country's leadership.

The Taliban insisted that pupils aged 12 to 19 would be segregated, even though most Afghan schools are already same-sex and operate according to Islamic principles.

School girl Alina Nazari (R) holds a book after the Taliban ordered girls' secondary schools in Afghanistan to shut.

Marwa Ayoubi was sent home in Kandahar, while crestfallen girls at Zarghona High School in the capital Kabul tearfully packed up their belongings after teachers halted lessons.

The latest education policy reversal by the hardline leaders sparked heartbreak and confusion.

The U-turn came shortly after thousands of girls had resumed lessons for the first time since August, when the Taliban seized control imposed harsh restrictions on women.

Schoolgirl Alina Nazari said she fears that the Taliban will shut down all formal education for girls, as they did in their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001.

Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, who survived a Pakistani Taliban assassination attempt when she was 15, tweeted: ‘They will keep finding excuses to stop girls from learning – because they are afraid of educated girls and empowered women.'

Mohammed Anwar Nazari and his daughter Alina give an interview. Even if schools do reopen fully, barriers to girls returning to education remain, with many families suspicious of the Taliban and reluctant to allow their daughters outside.

‘What will be our future?’ schoolgirl Qahera Mohammadi asks from her home in Panjshir province.

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