In defiance of the Taliban’s ban on female education in Afghanistan, thousands of women are turning to virtual learning platforms to pursue their educational aspirations.
Since their resurgence to power, the Taliban’s severe restrictions on women’s rights have established one of the world’s most oppressive regimes for women. Although the regime insists that the ban is temporary, there has been no discernible progress in creating the conditions they claim are necessary for women and girls to resume schooling or attend universities over the past two years.
The U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, reports that over 1 million girls are impacted by the ban. That number, however, according to UNICEF, is far lower than the actual number of girls deprived of education in Afghanistan. Its estimates show that 5 million were already out of school before the Taliban’s rule, primarily due to inadequate facilities and many other reasons.
Despite protests from citizens of Afghanistan inside the country, international pressure, and lobbying efforts by Muslim countries and organizations, the fundamentalist Taliban leaders remain unmoved to lift the ban. Amnesty International and various rights organizations have recorded cases of arbitrary arrest, detention, and corporal punishment imposed on women and girls who violate the Taliban restrictions.
As more and more educational spaces close to women, online platforms offer girls the opportunity to learn from the confines of their home surface as an alternative, although far from an ideal one. Financial Times reports that the providers of online classes are facing a rising demand from women and girls in Afghanistan who wish to pursue education, particularly in subjects such as English language, science, and business.
The report says that this demand persists despite the risks of recovery and challenges related to internet connectivity and power supplies. In Afghanistan, challenges related to internet connectivity and electricity remain high, with a significant portion of the population, even in major cities like the capital Kabul, facing difficulties due to the low speed and high cost of internet and a shortage of electricity. According to a Gallup survey, only 25% of men reported having access to the Internet compared to merely 6% of women. In rural areas, only 2% of women are said to have access to the internet.
The US-based online learning platform, FutureLearn, told the Financial Times that it has registered over 33,000 students from Afghanistan in the past year, with the vast majority being female. The platform, which was founded in 2012 to allow students to earn credits towards a degree on their tablets and smartphones, has been providing free access to its premium digital learning platform since the Taliban’s ban on female education.
University of the People, a US-accredited non-profit higher education institution, is another place that has attracted thousands of Afghan women in the past two years. According to the University, more than 21,000 Afghan women have applied for its degree courses in the past year. Over 3,100 Afghans are currently enrolled in various subjects and programs at the University of the People.
Banned from schools and universities, women and girls are also reportedly increasingly turning to religious schools, known as madrassas, in an effort to continue their education. Previously, Taliban authorities announced that women and girls of all ages are allowed to pursue studies in religious schools. According to the Taliban Ministry of Education, over 20,000 girls are enrolled in government-run madrassas. The collective enrollment of girls and young women in these religious schools reaches a total of 95,000.
However, critics argue that religious schools cannot compensate for the loss of access to secondary or higher education. These schools prioritize religious learning, often based on a very strict and conservative interpretation of Sharia, over modern education in social and natural sciences that are often geared toward preparing the youth for a productive career in the economy and a tolerant member of society.
Roza Otunbayeva, the UN Secretary General’s special envoy for Afghanistan, also told the Security Council that the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) is receiving increasing amounts of “anecdotal evidence” that girls of all ages can study at Islamic schools or madrassas. However, Otunbayeva added that it wasn’t clear what constituted a madrassa, if there was a standardized curriculum that allowed modern education subjects, and how many girls were able to study in these schools.
There appears no end in sight for the Taliban’s ban on female education and employment. The tough question women in Afghanistan face is to what end they would pursue education if the Taliban does not allow them to leverage their learning toward productive careers. Perhaps equally important would be the question of how far the Taliban would tolerate women’s education if alternative methods such as online education not only circumvent their policies but also train a more informed citizenry that would not easily bow down to the Taliban’s oppression.
