After the fall of Kabul into the Taliban’s hands, the doors of schools have also been closed for young girls across the country. with regard to this Matter, a resistance campaign has been initiated by the “Pen Path” organization. The organization condemned the ban on education and asked the Taliban government to allow girls to get back to their schools.
Members of this organization criticized the Taliban’s acts on social media using the hashtag #penpathgirlseducation. They have shared numerous posts defending girls’ and women’s right to education on their Facebook page.
The activists and members of this movement have traveled widely to various provinces such as Balkh, Nangarhar, and Helmand. and have asked people to join their campaign.
In their initial days they had shared a post on their Facebook which says:
“It has been 22 days, 22 days of uncertainty and hopelessness for thousands of young girls”.
After talking and consulting with people across the country, the Pen Path organization has launched a campaign on social media via the hashtag #penpathgirlseducationcampaign. In their posts, they appealed to the public and said” Please join this hashtag and help get girls back to school.”
Matiullah Wesa who is from Kandahar province and studied human rights in India is the founder of this organization. The Pen Path organization was founded in the year 2009 and has been actively working to promote education by establishing libraries, book reading events, and programs.
It now has 2400 active members, who are voluntarily working without any financial benefit.
This organization has been most successful in Kandahar and Helmand province, however, the members of this organization also travel all across the country to encourage people to send their young girls to school.
With the start of the new academic year, the members of Pen Path are even more active than before and are asking the Ministry of Education of the Taliban government to resume girls’ school as soon as possible.
Matiullah Wesa has condemned the ban on girl’s education on his Facebook page, he writes:
“People want the schools to get opened. In all other Islamic countries around the world, girls are free to pursue their education except for Afghanistan.”
He believes that the schools being closed even for a minute is unjustifiable, and they have to be opened immediately.
Zalmai Oriya (pseudonym) one of the protestors writes: “Education is every individual’s fundamental right”. He has expressed worry and discomfort about the closing of girls’ schools across the country and says ” We have been continuously protesting for the past several months, and have asked for the schools to get opened again, but we haven’t received any attention or coverage from the ones in charge.”
Zalala (pseudonym) one of the protestors who is a student herself says: “Women that constitute half of the Country’s population are being denied of their basic right to education. although no one hears our voice, we will continue resisting”.
Sabar Gul (pseudonym) who herself is a teacher and mother to two young girls says: ” Taliban want to rob girls dream of education, but this is and will not be accepted and will never happen”. She also condemned the Taliban for being anti-feminist and called on the international community to pay serious attention to this issue. All this while the daughters of some of the same Taliban leaders are studying at the best universities in the world.
