Afghanistan: Taliban drives out Afghan schoolgirls who are nearing puberty

Kandahar: In recent weeks, the Taliban regime has gone on an inspection spree of girls' schools in the Kandahar province and expelled hundreds of pubescent female students from the same, media reports suggest.

The students join an estimated 3 million girls in Afghanistan who are being able to pursue education in the war-ravaged country that was taken over by the Taliban in August 2021.

Since grabbing power, the militant group has barred girls who are 13 or older or above the sixth grade from attending school, RFE/RL reported.

The expulsions in Kandahar are part of the Taliban's enforcement of its deeply controversial ban, which has led to protests inside the country and attracted condemnation from the international community.

According to the Taliban's extremist view of Islamic Sharia law, girls who have reached puberty must be segregated from male students and teachers. The militants have claimed that, due to a shortage of female teachers, they cannot permit girls nearing puberty to attend school. Before the Taliban takeover, many girls' schools were already segregated.

The Taliban have not given any exceptions to girls who started school late, had to repeat school, or have learning disabilities, RFE/RL reported.

Fawzia, a 15-year-old who was in the fifth grade, was expelled from her school in Kandahar's Daman district last month. She said the Taliban kicked out more than 100 girls from her school alone after carrying out an inspection.

Mawlawi Fakhruddin Naqshbandi, the provincial head of the Taliban's Education Ministry in Kandahar, confirmed the expulsions. The head said that girls who were 13 or older or had reached puberty were being expelled.

Afghan women and girls have taken to the streets to protest the Taliban's ban and demand their basic rights since the militant group seized power in August 2021.

Last month, schoolgirls, women, and even Afghan elders openly demonstrated their support for girls' education in social media posts and street protests across the country, in a rare display of defiance under the Taliban, RFE/RL reported.