GARDEZ
\nFive government secondary schools for girls have resumed classes in eastern Afghanistan after hundreds of students demanded they reopen, a provincial official said Thursday.
\nOfficially the Taliban have banned girls\u2019 secondary school education, but the order has been ignored in a few parts of Afghanistan away from the central power bases of Kabul and Kandahar.
\nMohammad Wali Ahmadi, principal of Shashgar High School in Gardez, told AFP around 300 girls had returned to school since last week despite there being no change in official policy.
\nGroups of girls wearing headscarves and hijabs were seen heading to the school on Thursday morning. \u201cSince the girls came on their own, we haven\u2019t turned them back,\u201d Ahmadi said.
\nBut, if the education ministry ordered them to close, he would do so \u201cimmediately\u201d, he added. \u201cSo far we have not been told to send the girls back,\u201d Ahmadi said.
\nKhaliqyar Ahmadzai, the provincial head of information and culture, told AFP five schools had reopened, without offering an explanation.
\n\u201cA few days ago female students approached the principals of five schools demanding that their schools be reopened,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cSince then, classes have resumed and these schools are now functioning.\u201d
\nFour of the schools are in Gardez, the capital of Paktia province, and the other is in Samkani. Officials at the education ministry in Kabul were not immediately available for comment.
\nAhmadzai said it was likely that other schools in the province would follow suit.
\n\u201cIf students coordinate with principals, then this process of reopening schools will continue in the province,\u201d he said.
\nSince seizing power in August last year, the Taliban have imposed harsh restrictions on girls and women.
\nIn March they ordered all secondary schools for girls to be shut down just hours after reopening them for the first time since returning to power.
\nOfficials maintain the ban is just a \u201ctechnical issue\u201d and classes will resume once a curriculum is defined.
\nA few public schools did continue to operate in some parts of the country following pressure from local leaders and families.
\nThey remain shut in most provinces, however, including the capital Kabul as well as Kandahar, the de facto power centre of the Taliban.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GARDEZ Five government secondary schools for girls have resumed classes in eastern Afghanistan after hundreds of students demanded they reopen, a provincial official said Thursday. Officially the Taliban have banned girls\u2019 secondary school education, but the order has been ignored in a few parts of Afghanistan away from the central power bases of Kabul and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282528,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-282494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n