KABUL
\nDays after the Taliban staged a cruel U-turn on allowing Afghan girls back to school, Adeeba Haidari feels as if she is in prison.
\nThe 13-year-old was one of thousands of jubilant girls who flocked back to secondary schools reopening across the country on Wednesday, for the first time since the Taliban seized power in August.
\nBut just hours into classes, the education ministry announced a shock policy reversal that left schoolgirls feeling betrayed and the international community outraged.
\n\u201cNot only me but everyone you asked believed that the Taliban had changed,\u201d said Adeeba, who briefly returned to Al Fatah Girls School in the capital, Kabul.
\n\u201cWhen they sent everyone back home from school, we understood that the Taliban were the same Taliban of 25 years ago,\u201d her 11-year-old sister Malahat added.
\n\u201cWe are being treated like criminals just because we are girls. Afghanistan has turned into a jail for us.\u201d
\nWhen the Taliban returned to power, they promised a softer rule compared with their first regime from 1996 to 2001, which became notorious for human rights abuses.
\nThey claimed to respect women\u2019s rights, in line with their interpretation of Islamic sharia law, and said girls would be allowed to study through to university.
\nBut the Taliban have imposed a slew of restrictions on women, effectively banning them from many government jobs, policing what they wear and preventing them from travelling outside of their cities alone.
\nThey have also detained several women\u2019s rights activists.
\n\u201cWe miss our freedom. We miss our classmates and teachers,\u201d said Adeeba.
\n\u2018Dreams shattered\u2019
\nThere has been no clear explanation for the last-minute reversal on secondary schools, but reports leaked from a secretive leadership meeting this week suggested motives ranging from problems with uniforms to an outright rejection of the need for education for teenage girls.
\nThe education ministry still insists schools will restart, but only when new guidelines are issued.
\nAcross town, Nargis Jafri, from the minority Shia Hazara community, said the Taliban feel threatened by educated women. \u201cThey believe that if we study, we will gain knowledge and we will fight against them,\u201d the 14-year-old told AFP, sitting with her books spread out on her study table at home.
\nIt is agonising for her to watch boys her age walking past her house on their way to school each morning. \u201cIt is really hard and painful for me,\u201d she said.
\nLike many families, history is repeating itself from one generation to the next.
\nNargis\u2019s mother, Hamida, was forced to leave school during the Taliban\u2019s first rule when she was about 10 years old.
\nThe stories from what she thought a distant past are flooding into her mind again.
\n\u201cI used to feel strange when she told us how she wore a burqa or a chador, or how a woman was not allowed to go out without a male relative,\u201d Nargis said.
\nHamida now struggles to accept a similar fate for her daughter.
\n\u201cMy daughter will be held back from going to school,\u201d she said. \u201cThe dreams she has in her heart will be shattered.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KABUL Days after the Taliban staged a cruel U-turn on allowing Afghan girls back to school, Adeeba Haidari feels as if she is in prison. The 13-year-old was one of thousands of jubilant girls who flocked back to secondary schools reopening across the country on Wednesday, for the first time since the Taliban seized power […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5364,1301,5365,192],"class_list":{"0":"post-251544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-educated-women","9":"tag-fear","10":"tag-quip-schoolgirls","11":"tag-taliban"},"yoast_head":"\n