What happened: On Apr 1, around 400 women and girls, many of them in their late teens and early twenties, gathered at a sports hall in Bamiyan’s centre city for what they were told would be an opportunity to discuss their right to an education. The women tore down a flag and demanded to be heard when it turned out to be a rally for the local Taliban, with no mention of education.
Click here to see the video of the situation.
Details: The women claimed that the Taliban planned to use the event to discuss women’s right to education in the presence of the Taliban’s Bamiyan province governor. When they arrived, however, they discovered banners proclaiming that “the people of Bamiyan support the Taliban.” The women claimed that they and other attendees were duped into attending.
Why it matters: The incident occurred two weeks after the Taliban abruptly reversed their position on teen girls’ education. After more than six months of closure, Afghanistan’s high schools for females reopened on March 23. However, on the same day, the Ministry of Education said that high school lessons for girls would be halted until a plan could be developed “in conformity with Islamic law and Afghan culture.”