KABUL (Pajhwok): Members of civil society institutes, political parties and tribal councils during a gathering in Kabul on Thursday called the closure of girls’ schools a great injustice with the gender, asking the government for reopening of all schools in the country.
The gathering was attended by more than 200 members of Afghanistan’s Powerful Women’s Movement, civil society organizations, political parties and tribal councils.
Munawara, a student of 11th grade, told the gathering that depriving girls of education was an oppression. She asked the international community and human rights organizations to defend the rights of girls.
AbedehMajidi, a lecturer of religious studies at one of private universities talking to the gathering, said that the first word that was revealed to the Prophet (PBUH) was reading.
She called education as one of responsibilities in Islam and said that the Prophet of Islam has emphasized on women’s education.
“If a girl is educated, a family becomes enlightened and as a result the society becomes enlightened, so the schools should be reopened for them,” she said.
Munsa Mubarez, the founder of Afghanistan’s Powerful Women’s Movement, also said that political changes in the country mainly affected education of girls.
She called on the international community and human rights organizations to put pressure on the leadership of the caretaker government to reopen schools.
Criticizing the closure of schools for girls, Sayed Javad Hosseini, head of Justice and Development Party, said that the basis of theology could not be achieved without education.
He said that there was no border between men and women and closure of girls’ schools has no Islamic, cultural or national justification.
“Illiteracy causes backwardness in technology and economy and it increases poverty and various problems in different sections of society”, he said.
He called the closure of schools painful while 70 percent of Afghanistan’s population is illiterate and called for the schools to be opened to girls as soon as possible.
A resolution read out by the gathering stated that depriving a generation of education for eight months is a catastrophe which is not acceptable.
The resolution called on the leaders of the caretaker government to share with its people if there is any issues regarding the opening of schools or it should not play with the fate of people’s children.
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