Bombings Targets Schoolgirls in Afghanistan

In a country where only 30% of women are literate, Afghan girls are still determined to pursue their education even when their lives are at stake.

In the first half of 2021, the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack have identified over 200 explosive weapon attacks on schools, students, school personnels and higher education in Afghanistan. These attacks have injured and killed hundreds of students and educators as well as damaged or destroyed countless schools and universities. Most of the victims killed or injured were young girls and women

GCPEA has also reported that non-state armed groups have targeted girl’s education at least twice a year from 2018 to mid-2021.

The mother of a schoolgirl who was among those killed in the brutal May 8, 2021 bombing of the Sayed ul-Shuhada girls' school stands inside a classroom with bouquets of flowers on empty desks as a tribute to the dead, in Kabul, Afghanistan (Source: AP)

With explosive weapons, these attacks also bring indirect impacts upon students other than casualties and destruction. Victims of the attacks miss weeks or months of classes and experience intense trauma interfering with learning once they return to schools

"The entire night we carried bodies of young girls and boys to a graveyard and prayed for everyone wounded in the attack," said Mohammed Reza Ali, who has been helping families of the victims at a private hospital during one of the school bombings. "Why not just kill all of us to put an end to this war?" he added.

Debris inside a firebombed classroom in the village of Naw Deh, in Farah Province, Afghanistan (Source : Najim Rahim/The New York Times)

Despite the attacks and their uncertain future under the Taliban’s rule, Afghan girls are still determined to go to school.

"I want to come back to school even more strongly than before and continue my studies," says Fatima, who survived a school bombing that killed many of her classmates . "I want to continue the path of those who were martyred."

Students walk out after classes at Zarghoona High School on July 25. The girls-only school is the largest in Kabul, with 8,500 female students (Source : Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

References

• https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/10/afghanistan-girls-education/

• https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/09/07/explosive-weapons-attacks-afghanistan-schools-increase

• https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/09/asia/afghanistan-girls-school-attack-intl-hnk/index.html

• https://protectingeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/EWIPA-Afghanistan-2021.pdf

• https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/afghan-schoolgirl-determined-return-school-after-deadly-blast-2021-06-07/