After the Taliban was routed by US forces and the "Northern Alliance" girls were again allowed to go to school. So many new pupils wanted to attend that some schools had to use all available space and run lessons in three-shifts.
Now, yet again, the history of this troubled nation has turned a dark corner when the Taliban are back in power and immediately ban all girls older than 12 to attend school.
“All male teachers and students should attend their educational institutions,” a statement from the Taliban Education ministry stated. The future of girls and female teachers, stuck at home since the Taliban took over was not mentioned.
This edict makes Afghanistan the only country on earth to ban half its population from getting a secondary education.
War widow, Kabul 1996.
The strategic geographical position of Afghanistan has made its tragic mark on the country for centuries. I took this photograph of a war widow being helped to an ICRC food handout in Kabul more than twenty years ago. The war against the Russian invasion and the following internal battles between different Warlords killed tens of thousand of people. Some of the same Warlords were later called "allies" in the war against the Taliban terrorists.The terror and killing continues.
The deadly violence continues in Afghanistan.
Kabul, 2002
It was getting dark.
The warm summer sun of daytime lingered on the concrete. Kabul was in ruins. It was time to go back to the guesthouse and say goodnight. Suddenly I heard laughter approaching, and I turned around to see a cyclist passing. The bicycle was loaded with family members and newly bought vegetables. I ran next to it for a while, taking a few photos, before the group hurriedly disappeared, laughing. Five hopeful smiles cycling towards a brighter future. That’s what I thought then. There would be many more trips with a bulletproof vest in the luggage. Afghanistan’s geopolitical location is at the root of a lot of this evil. The presence of foreign armies has dominated the country’s history for many years. The latest full-blown occupation was Russian and ended in 1989. After the Russians left the war continued as a civil war between the government, supported by Russia, and the guerrilla groups. In 1992 the capital of Kabul finally fell, but the different guerrilla groups, led by so called warlords, started to fight between themselves, and another war broke out, lasting for nine years. The biggest devastation happened between 1993 and 1994, when large parts of Kabul were turned into rubble.
In 1996 the country was taken over by the fundamentalist Taliban movement. The Taliban ruled the country by force until 2001, when an offensive led by the Americans overthrew them. After the fall of the Taliban life slowly returned. Houses were rebuilt, roads were repaired and the education system, especially for girls, could be prioritized again. There was a striking shortage of schools to accommodate the huge amount of pupils. The existing schools sometimes worked three shifts a day. The fact that the schools had no windows or roofs didn’t matter. The country suddenly had a future, and money and businesses were flowing in. Even though the landscape to the south and west of the city centre still consisted of kilometer after kilometer of destruction and horrible memories, the ruins were starting to show signs of life. The primitive buildings built in sundried mud brick were refurbished, and sometimes demolished to make way for modern houses.
Kabul, 2012.
A couple of blocks from the "Olympic stadium" internally displaced refugees have taken shelter. The 83 families had been fleeing violence for three years. Four year old Bibi Hajira is very happy that her older brother Shir Agha let her play with his balloon.
The last time the Taliban movement ruled Afghanistan the "Olympic" stadium was used for public executions.