Althouse: "Thousands of Afghan girls were left distraught at school gates today after the Taliban’s last-minute decision to ban girls aged over 12..."

March 23, 2022

"Thousands of Afghan girls were left distraught at school gates today after the Taliban’s last-minute decision to ban girls aged over 12..."

"... reversing their promises that education would be open to all. Afghanistan’s new rulers have decided against opening schools to girls beyond grade six, a Taliban official said today, the first day of the new school year. Only days ago, a statement by the education ministry had urged 'all students' to come to school. 'We were refused entry,' said Sumaya Mohsini, 15, as she stood outside Zarghona high school in central Kabul with friends. 'I’m devastated. I was so happy as I got ready for school and packed my bag, but to come here and be told we cannot return to our lessons, it’s just the worst feeling. I spent the first five months [following the Taliban takeover] barely leaving my home. Eventually I began attending a private course and then I heard we’d be allowed to go back to school — I was so excited, so was my father. My dream is to become a surgeon but that dream is slowly slipping away.'"

The London Times reports.

26 comments:

rhhardin said...: Veterinarian is a more popular choice. Regular hours.; 3/23/22, 5:16 PM
Original Mike said...: Suu…PRISE! Suu…PRISE! Suu…PRISE!; 3/23/22, 5:20 PM
Temujin said...: Imagine the Biden team's surprise at this. Now imagine their upcoming surprise when they remove the sanctions on the Iranians and what follows is a nuclear armed Iran and a new generation of well-funded terrorists coming out of the Middle East.

Surprises abound over the next few years.; 3/23/22, 5:29 PM
Paul said...: Promises? Taliban promises?

No doubt they are just as good as Joe Biden promises!; 3/23/22, 5:33 PM
mikee said...: Where does one get one of those "I did that!" stickers, with a picture of every US President from Carter up to the present?; 3/23/22, 5:34 PM
Wince said...: Afghanistan’s new rulers have decided against opening schools to girls beyond grade six...

Hey, if was good enough for Jethro Bodine...; 3/23/22, 5:40 PM
JK Brown said...: They way to harden children in the face of these schooling bans, or even the indoctrination in US schools, is to not hand feed the kids. Teach them HOW TO STUDY so they can learn from whatever source they find. They are not dependent upon teachers, not imbued with school helplessness (less initiative in school subjects than other areas of life).

We can sit here and wring our hands at this happening, but the fact is for more than 20 years, the US sent people to Afghanistan to teach. They taught art, women's studies, etc. They did not teach their students how to study, how to learn without the vaunted teacher holding their hand. Nor did they teach Afghan girls how to defend themselves.

"True or logical study is not aimless mental activity or a passive reception of ideas only for the sake of having them. It is the vigorous application of the mind to a subject for the satisfaction of a felt need. Instead of being aimless, every portion of of effort put forth is an organic step toward the accomplishment of a specific purpose; instead of being passive, it requires the reaction of the self upon the ideas presented, until they are supplemented, organized, and tentatively judged, so that they are held well in memory. The study of a subject has not reached its end until the guiding purpose has been accomplished and the knowledge has been so assimilated that it has been used in a normal way and has become experience. And, finally, since the danger of submergence of self among so much foreign thought is so great, it is not complete — at least for young students — until precautions for the preservation of individuality have been included.

"The common notion that study should consist of thinking is, therefore, quite right. In Hints for Home Reading (p. 51) Henry Ward Beecher says of himself: "Reading with me incites to reflection instantly."

--How to Study and Teaching How to Study (1909) by F. M. McMurry, Professor of Elementary Education, Teachers College, Columbia University; 3/23/22, 5:41 PM
rcocean said...: I thought there was a famine in afghanistan. Is that all over now, so we can talk about girls going to school?; 3/23/22, 5:57 PM
Joe Smith said...: All cultures are equal.

Liberals have been telling us this for years.; 3/23/22, 6:26 PM
tommyesq said...: What is a "girl?" Asking for a SC nominee.; 3/23/22, 7:00 PM
Lyle said...: No more war in Afghanistan... even if for the girls and women (if that is what they are).; 3/23/22, 7:56 PM
Sebastian said...: They should just identify as boys. Problem solved.; 3/23/22, 7:58 PM
Skeptical Voter said...: Hey the Taliban keeps a promise like a Biden.; 3/23/22, 8:05 PM
n.n said...: The Biden/Afghan/Taliban Spring with billions of dollars in state-of-the-art military housewarming gifts. Take a knee, beg, good girl.; 3/23/22, 8:16 PM
Josephbleau said...: When Allah closes one door, he closes another.; 3/23/22, 8:17 PM
Josephbleau said...: "I thought there was a famine in Afghanistan. Is that all over now, so we can talk about girls going to school?"

Are there not enough workhouses in Afghanistan? Are there not enough Prisons?; 3/23/22, 8:19 PM
n.n said...: To be fair, there was something lost in translation. The Taliban interpreted the Progressive Creed (PC) as "equal in rites and complementary in taxation".; 3/23/22, 8:20 PM
Josephbleau said...: "True or logical study is not aimless mental activity or a passive reception of ideas only for the sake of having them. It is the vigorous application of the mind to a ... see above ... preservation of individuality have been included."

That guy knew what he was talking about. That guy was worthy of an EdD, like Jill Beiden, yea.; 3/23/22, 8:25 PM
Drago said...: It appears the Taliban is comprised of lots of biologists.

They can tell boys from girls.; 3/23/22, 8:28 PM
Gahrie said...: They can tell boys from girls

My first thought was: "Did she try telling them she identifies as a boy?".

(As fellow commentor Jamie will tell you, if this idiocy had been around when I was in high school, I was the guy who would have gone into the principal's office and announced I was now a girl, and demanded to use the girl's restrooms and locker rooms, and compete on the girl's teams. I believe the applicable term is shit stirrer.); 3/23/22, 9:25 PM
William said...: It's a matter of religious faith on the left that China and Vietnam were never really ours to lose. Perhaps the same is true of Afghanistan.....I don't mean to excuse the ineptitude of our leave taking, but the reasonable Afghans were the ones who lost the war there and are now lost under the Taliban......Can you perhaps say that the reasonable Chinese and Vietnamese were the ones who also lost their wars?...Reasonable people don't win wars. Maybe the Ukrainians will have better luck with their war. What with the territorial imperative and all, their response to Russian invasion will be fanatical and irrational. Fanatics seem to have an edge in conflict resolution. Girls who want to go to school not so much.; 3/23/22, 10:18 PM
wendybar said...: They can Thank Joe Biden.; 3/24/22, 6:51 AM
Critter said...: Could Republicans bring a Taliban representative to the SC hearings as a way to help the judge with a definition of woman?; 3/24/22, 7:46 AM
henge2243 said...: Better get the impotent #hashtag brigade on it!!; 3/24/22, 10:30 AM
PM said...: That's just the saddest gd item. Wish they could get to our southern border.; 3/24/22, 1:06 PM
Bunkypotatohead said...: "Thousands of Afghan girls were left distraught at school gates today after the Taliban’s last-minute decision to ban girls aged over 12..."
They're gonna be more distraught when they find out about their upcoming clitorectomies.; 3/24/22, 5:45 PM