Ban on the education of women

I am ashamed to admit this but I have only recently discovered that in Afghanistan the Taliban have banned the education for girls beyond 6th grade.

To be completely honest, I had to cross-check the claim as I just found it to be unbelievable. I thought surely it was propaganda, how could it be that in the 21st century where we have robots capable of landing on other PLANETS, where we have the developed the technologies that gives us the mean to alter our genetic code, we have a huge group of people being denied one of the most basic rights each human has.

Education.

To want to know more is an innate human desire that manifests itself through what we call “curiousity”. How cruel it must be to be denied the right to have a shot at knowing more from others who embarked on the same journey. A journey that propelled all of us (humanity) to the future with all sorts of advancements, not just in technology but also in art, philosophy and countless other areas.

I feel profoundly sad to have learnt that there are girls, millions of them, who might never embark on the journey of knowing more. I feel sad that we have let them down, that we haven’t fought for their rights enough and that we put our material and territorial interests above their most basic rights. I feel sad to contemplate the potential intellectual loss to humanity. I feel sad to think about the little girl who looks up at the stars not being able to know more about them and is not able to see them as more than points of light in the sky.

Reflecting on this reminds me of when I was a kid and used to live in Pakistan in a small but religious town. Of how so many restrictions were and are placed on women. The lack of opportunities, being told how to behave and when is a burden I will probably never understand.

I hope that one day no other girl will have to understand it either.

I hope that those girls (in Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world) can pursue education and fulfil their curiosities and live life the way they want to live like how I and many others can.

I hope that I will see that happen in my time.

I believe that it is possible.

– Farrukh

This was written on June 5th, 2026 but is being published on the 30th June 2026