Head of the Afghan-Turk Education Foundation in Afghanistan, Ahmed Tukur, said that in discussion with the Islamic Emirate’s officials, they are attempting to reopen schools for girls in Afghanistan.

Speaking in a news conference, Tukur said that he hopes schools will reopen for girls as soon as possible.

We hope that the schools will reopen. We met with the officials and the discussions are still ongoing. We want the government’s will to open the schools, he said.

Meanwhile, Heather Barr, director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, said women and girls have been deprived of their most basic rights, including the right to education, for the past two years.

Women and girls over the last two plus years have seen everything striped away from them. Their social networks, their education, their economic opportunities, their feeling of independence and belonging, their hopes for the future. And this has left them in a situation where they are so desperate, Barr said.

In the meantime, some female students once again are asking the current government not to take away their right to education.

It has been two years that our schools are closed. I hoped to study in the medical faculty once I graduate from school, but so far there is no hope that schools will be reopened, Shila, a student.

It has been nearly one year that we are deprived of going to university. I was a student in the medical faculty, and really wanted to finish my studies and serve our country and society, Tamana, another student.

Even though the Ministry of Education previously stated that by developing a structure to accommodate females beyond the sixth grade so they would be allowed to pursue their education, this ministry has not recently voiced any opinions regarding girls’ schools.