The women and girls face a bleak future

The balance of power in Afghanistan has already changed since mid-August 2021 – the Taliban have taken power. After four months, we can take stock of how the new political situation is affecting our current projects.

Project manager Faisal Haidari reports on the current situation of the Cap Anamur projects in Afghanistan

“The positive part,” Faisal reports, “is that we are continuing our work in Herat.” He summarizes how the situation has changed beyond that for the people and especially for the women and girls as follows:

The work continues – under much more difficult and uncertain conditions and we are concerned about the future of the country.

We continue to run the dialysis unit and the training course for young women with restrictions. We have to state a severe change especially in our tutoring project for low-income boys and girls. Currently, girls are only allowed to attend public schools up to grade 6, i.e. until the age of 12. Even our tutoring course, despite our best efforts, only has permission to teach boys. For the girls who had prepared for the university entrance exam within our course for this year and next year, participation is no longer possible.

The girls and women are increasingly excluded from education once more

For the schoolgirls it means: no more school attendance, no prospect of being able to study. Many apprenticeships are no longer permitted for women, thus their path to financial independence is blocked by the state.

One of our longest serving staff members in the tutoring project- Ms. A. – has been a teacher and principal at a public girls’ school for decades. Since we started our tutoring project, she has been coordinating the the lessons of the teachers and the admission formalities of the students. students.

She reports that many girls have called the tutoring school to ask if they could come back to school. But this is no longer possible. “In the last two years we helped so many girls clear the exam hurdle to study, they were so happy and grateful, some did so well that they were allowed to study law, for example, and now suddenly this profession is forbidden for girls and women,” Ms. A explains.

The women and girls face a bleak future

When the Taliban descended on the country twenty years ago, Mrs. A. had quickly married off her daughters, still very young, in order to prevent them from being forced to marry a Talib. Even now, many families are afraid that the Taliban will lay claim to unmarried girls and widows.
Mrs. A., together with her husband, also left their homeland for good; they were given protection in Germany: “I could never have imagined leaving Afghanistan at my age. We had even bought a burial plot in Herat, this is where we were born and where we wanted to be buried. The Taliban destroyed all my hopes for a better future for Afghanistan. It hurts my heart to think of all the smart, hardworking and fun-loving girls who now face dark times ahead.”
Our project coordinator Faisal Haidari has been overseeing Cap Anamur’s work since 2001, when the first girls’ schools were established. “I often think back to 20 years ago when we were doing our part in rebuilding a battered country. I am shocked and deeply saddened by this current step backwards for the Afghan civilian population, especially for the female part. I think back with sorrow to the little girls who, with their hands rough and cracked from wind and weather and work, proudly clutched their school bags on their way to their village schools, their faces beaming.”