With Afghanistan coming under Taliban rule again for over a year now, women’s education has become one of the worst-hit factors in the country. In the wake of the Taliban curbing the rights of education for women, Afghan women’s rights activists have commenced a library, aimed at bringing back women who are deprived of fundamental rights like receiving education, on the path of learning.
Under Taliban rule, day to day lives of the women in the country have changed drastically. As per the terrorist group’s rules, no woman can move outside the house without a male accomplice and every woman is required to cover her face. The Taliban has also not acted upon its promise of opening up a secondary school for girls and most of the secondary schools for girls are not operating.
As per Julia Parsi, one of the women who started the library, said that there were two objectives behind developing it- first, for the girls who cannot go to schools and colleges; and second, for the women who have lost their jobs.
The library contains more than thousand books, covering a range of topics like politics, science, and economics and also has story books and novels. Most of the books have been given to the library by teachers, poets and writers. The books were donated by them to the Crystal Bayat Foundation and the foundation, in turn, helped to develop the library. It also received help from women activists who had taken part in protests for the last few months.
The library is situated in a rented shop at a mall in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul.
