No girls as secondary schools reopen in Afghanistan | Daily News

No girls as secondary schools reopen in Afghanistan

Series of explosions in Jalalabad, Taliban officials among dead
Relatives of Afghan family killed in US strike want face-to-face apology
Aimal Ahmadi (R), brother of Ezmarai Ahmadi, who was one of 10 people killed in a US drone strike in Kabul that the US now says was a mistake, stands next to the wreckage of a vehicle destroyed in the attack.
Aimal Ahmadi (R), brother of Ezmarai Ahmadi, who was one of 10 people killed in a US drone strike in Kabul that the US now says was a mistake, stands next to the wreckage of a vehicle destroyed in the attack.

AFGHANISTAN: Girls were excluded from returning to secondary school in Afghanistan on Saturday, after the country’s Taliban rulers ordered only boys and male teachers back to the classroom.

“All male teachers and students should attend their educational institutions,” a statement from the education ministry said ahead of classes resuming on Saturday. The statement, issued on Friday, made no mention of women teachers or girl pupils.

Secondary schools, with students typically between the ages of 13 and 18, are often segregated by sex in Afghanistan. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they have faced repeated closures and have been shut since the Taliban seized power.

The United Nations said it was “deeply worried” for the future of girls’ schooling in Afghanistan. “It is critical that all girls, including older girls, are able to resume their education without any further delays. For that, we need female teachers to resume teaching,” the UN’s children’s agency Unicef said.

Meanwhile, A series of three explosions killed at least three, including Taliban officials, and injured around 20 in Afghanistan's Jalalabad on Saturday, reports said. The explosion that took place in the capital of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province was targeted at Taliban vehicles. Local officials in Nangarhar told Tolo News that the roadside bomb exploded when a Taliban ranger struck it.

Reports said two Taliban officials were among the dead while the injured comprised mostly civilians. On Saturday, a sticky bomb exploded in Kabul, wounding two people.

The target of the Kabul bomb is not yet clear, but the Jalalabad landmine blast was targeted at the Taliban officials. No one has yet taken the responsibility for the Jalalabad attack.- Meanwhile, Relatives of the victims of a US drone strike that wiped out 10 members of an Afghan family in a "tragic mistake" demanded a face-to-face apology and compensation on Saturday.

Ezmarai Ahmadi was wrongly identified as an Islamic State militant by US intelligence, which tracked his white Toyota for eight hours on August 29 before targeting the car with a missile, killing seven children and three adults.

A top general admitted the attack was an error, and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin apologised to the relatives of those killed.

However, Ahmadi's 22-year-old nephew, Farshad Haidari, said that was not enough.

"They must come here and apologise to us face-to-face," he said in a bombed-out, modest house in Kwaja Burga, a densely populated neighbourhood in the northwest of the Afghan capital. Haidari, whose brother Naser and young cousins also died, said the US had made no direct contact with the family.

- THE HINDUSTAN TIMES


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