「なぜ勉強できないの？」　学校を追われたアフガン少女たち

【カブールＡＦＰ＝時事】アフガニスタンのアメナさん（１６）は、通っていた女子高校が今年５月、イスラム過激派組織「イスラム国（ＩＳ）」の爆弾攻撃を受け、同級生数十人の死を目の当たりにした。それでも教育を受け続ける覚悟だった。（写真はアフガニスタン・カブールで、学校の授業に出席できず自宅にいるアメナさん）
　ところが、中等教育を受けているほとんどの女子と同様、アメナさんは今、授業からまったく締め出されている。アフガニスタンで政権を奪還したイスラム主義組織「タリバン」は９月に学校再開を命じたが、女子生徒は除外された。
　「勉強したいし、友達に会いたいし、明るい未来がほしいです。でも今はそれができません」。首都カブール西部にある自宅でアメナさんはＡＦＰに語った。「最悪の状況です。タリバンが来てから、とても悲しいし、怒っています」
　国連児童基金（ユニセフ）の幹部が１５日に語ったところによると、タリバン暫定政権の教育相は同機関に対し、すべての女子生徒が中等教育を受けられるようにする枠組みを近く発表すると述べたという。
　だが今のところ首都カブールを含むアフガン全土で、女子生徒の大部分は授業を受けられていない。
　一方、小学校はすべての子どもに対して再開した。また私立大学には女子も通うことができるが、服装や行動について厳しい制限が課せられている。

■「希望がない」
　アメナさんはジャーナリストになることを夢見ていたが、今では「アフガニスタンに希望はない」という。
　家ではきょうだいに勉強を助けてもらっている。学校襲撃で心に傷を負った妹はカウンセリングを受けている。アメナさんは時折、このカウンセラーからも勉強を教わっている。
　「兄弟が本を家に持ってくるので、それを読んでいます」と語る。「それから、いつもニュースを見ています」
　なぜ男子だけが勉強することができて、女子には許されないのか、理解できないとアメナさんは訴える。「社会の半分は女子で、残りの半分が男子。なんの違いもありません」
　「なぜ私たちは勉強できないのでしょうか？ 私たちは社会の一員じゃないのでしょうか？ なぜ男子だけに将来があるのでしょうか？」

■消えた夢
　米軍主導の多国籍軍が旧タリバン政権を追放したのは、２００１年。それから何年もたって生まれたザイナブさん（仮名、１２）は、タリバンの５年におよぶ圧政の記憶もなく、学校通いを楽しんでいた。それも復権したタリバンの命令が出るまでだった。
　先月、男子だけが学校に戻る様子を窓から見てがく然とし、「恐ろしい気持ち」になったという。
　「毎日、どんどん悪くなっています」とザイナブさん。身の安全のために本名は伏せて取材に応じた。
　姉のマラレーさん（仮名、１６）は涙ながらに「絶望と恐怖」を感じていると明かした。今は掃除や皿洗い、洗濯など家事を手伝って過ごしている。
　母親の前では涙をみせないようにしている。「母はたくさんのプレッシャーを背負っていますから」と説明した。
　マラレーさんは女性の権利を向上させ、彼女の権利を奪う男性たちを説き伏せることを夢見ていた。
　「学校、そして大学に行くのは私の権利です」とマラレーさん。「私の夢や計画はすべて、消えてしまいました」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/10/26-16:20）

Afghan teenager Amena saw dozens of classmates killed when her girls' school was targeted by an Islamic State bomb attack in May, but she was determined to continue her education.
Now, like most secondary school girls in the country, she is banned from lessons altogether after the Taliban's hardline government excluded them from returning to class one month ago.
I wanted to study, see my friends and have a bright future, but now I am not allowed, 16-year-old Amena told AFP at her home in western Kabul.
This situation makes me feel awful. Since the Taliban arrived, I am very sad and angry.
On September 18, Afghanistan's new Islamist rulers ordered male teachers and boys aged 13 and over back to secondary schools, picking up an academic year already cut short by violence and the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, there was no mention of women teachers or girl pupils.
The Taliban later said older girls can return to secondary schools, which were already mostly split by gender, but only once security and stricter segregation under their interpretation of Islamic law could be ensured.
Reports have emerged of girls going back to a few high schools -- such as in Kunduz province where the Taliban promoted the return with a stage-managed rally.
The de facto Taliban education minister told the UN children's body that a framework to allow all girls to go to secondary school will be announced soon, a senior UNICEF executive said Friday.
But for now, the vast majority are barred from lessons across the country of about 39 million people, including in the capital Kabul.
Primary schools, meanwhile, have reopened for all children and women can go to private universities, though with tough restrictions on their clothes and movement.
- 'No hope' -
Amena lives just a short walk from her Sayed Al-Shuhada High School, where 85 people -- mainly young girls -- perished in the May bomb attack.
Innocent girls were killed, Amena said, her eyes welling up.
I saw with my own eyes the dying and wounded girls.
However, I still wanted to go to school again.
Amena would be in Grade 10 studying her favourite subjects such as biology, but instead is stuck inside with a handful of books doing nothing special.
The teenager said she dreamt of becoming a journalist, but now has no hope in Afghanistan.
Her siblings help her at home, and occasionally she gets lessons from a psychologist who comes to see her younger sister, still traumatised by the school attack.
They say: 'Study if you cannot go to school -- study at home so that you may become someone in the future.'
My brother brings home storybooks and I read them, Amena said. And I always watch the news.
But she does not understand why boys are allowed to study and girls are not.
Half of the society is made up of girls and the other half is made up of boys. There is no difference between them, she said.
Why can't we study? Are we not part of society? Why should only boys have a future?
- Recent progress -
After US-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001, progress was made in girls' education.
The number of schools tripled and female literacy nearly doubled to 30 percent, but the change was largely limited to the cities.
Afghan women have made great achievements in the past 20 years, said Nasrin Hasani, a 21-year-old teacher at a Kabul secondary school who now helps out with primary pupils.
But the current situation has lowered both our and the students' morale, she said, questioning the Taliban's reasoning.
As far as we all know, the religion of Islam has never hindered the education and work of women.
Hasani said she has not experienced any direct threats from the Taliban.
But Amnesty International reported that one high school teacher received death threats and was summoned for prosecution because she used to teach co-educational sport.
Hasani said she was clinging to hope that the Taliban will be a little different from their brutal 1996-2001 regime, when women were not even allowed out of their homes unchaperoned.
- Buried dreams -
Born years after 2001, Zainab has no memories of that period and loved going to school until the Taliban directive.
The 12-year-old was stuck looking out of the window with a terrible feeling last month when boys went back to school.
It is quite obvious that things get worse day by day, said Zainab, whose name has been changed to protect her identity.
Her 16-year-old sister Malalay said tearfully that she had feelings of despair and fear.
Malalay, whose name has also been changed, passes her time helping around the house, cleaning, washing dishes and doing laundry.
She said she tries not to cry in front of her mother because there are a lot of pressures on her.
The teen had dreams of promoting women's rights and speaking out against the men depriving her of her rights.
My rights are to go to school and university, she said.
All my dreams and plans are now buried.