Fatima and Khudija arrived at their school in central Kabul early on Wednesday, eager to see their exam results from the previous year. But after just a few minutes in their old classrooms, they were reluctantly ordered off the premises by the deputy principal.
Despite pledging to allow girls of all ages to attend when schools reopened this week, the Taliban’s education ministry issued a last-minute reversal that banned girls beyond seventh grade (that is, those aged 13 and above, starting secondary school) from returning.
