Name: Khatima
Province: Panjshir
In 2020, my colleague and I started educational classes for street girls. After the fall of Afghanistan, when girls’ education was officially banned and public lessons became impossible, we moved our classes underground. In addition to teaching street girls, we also provided education to girls above sixth grade.
Over the past three years, we received multiple threats and warnings from the Taliban. Because of this, we had to change locations several times. Despite our efforts, the Taliban eventually tracked us. My colleague was forced to flee to Iran and entrusted me with her sister so that we could continue the classes.
We managed to keep teaching for a while, but after the Taliban enforced their “promotion of virtue and prevention of vice” law, we had no choice but to suspend the school indefinitely.
On the day we announced the closure, the girls were deeply distressed. There was profound sadness in their eyes. Each of them, in her own way, pleaded with us not to shut down the school.
