Razia Jan with one of her students.Photo: courtesy Razia’s Ray of Hope Foundation
Razia Jan is keeping open the Afghanistan girls' school outside Kabul that she founded in 2008, but things are dramatically differentsince the Taliban took controlof the country in August.
Almost half of the students are missing — those in grades 7 through 12 — and many of the school’s secondary teachers remain at home, Jan told PEOPLE in a recent interview.
Of the 800 girls enrolled through the 12th grade, just 455 had so far been allowed to come to her school, Jan said.
“You can’t imagine how sad I am,” she said from her home in the U.S., where she has lived since 1970. “But that’s how it is. We have to do the best we can. And always there is hope, and I hope that they will be allowed to continue their education.”
The rules for girls' schooling remain unclear and evolving: As the Taliban returned to power two months ago, they insisted they would be more moderate than their previous, brutal regime of the ’90s.
“We got a letter from the Ministry of Education,” Jan said last week, “and they tell you that the teachers, all the girls from seventh to 12th grade cannot come to school till we let you know. "
Razia Jan and her students.courtesy Razia’s Ray of Hope Foundation
Many of Jan’s all-female teaching staff of 31 — who have no secondary students to teach — also remain at home, Jan said last week. Still, Jan’s school has continued to pay their salary, she said.
In August, when Jan first spoke to PEOPLE, she shared her optimism for the girls at her school, ages 4 to 19, despite the country’s upheaval: “Instead of me crying that the Taliban has come, I’m thinking of how I’m going to work with them to get education to these girls.”
Now, Jan plans on returning to Afghanistan in November and hopes to make headway with the head of education ministry in the region.
“I would speak to him,” she told PEOPLE, “and I would say that, ‘Let us continue our education.’ "
She added that the country with the Taliban in charge has brought on immense issues with hunger — “I’ve been talking to many people, the people, they’re dying of hunger, because they have no money” — but also an unexpected calm.
“There’s a lot of peace,” Jan said. “There are no robberies. People are leaving their shops open and they go and say prayers and nobody touches that. It’s not that they [the Taliban] are beating anybody or doing anything.”
When asked if she’s surprised there aren’t more difficulties, Jan said her focus is on her school — and all the other girls now kept at home.
“My girls from seventh to 12th grade, they’re not coming, but there are thousands other girls who are not coming too,” she said. “And that is something that they have to change and make sure that all the teachers are women.”
source: people.com
