At Kabul’s Zarghona High School, where hundreds of students sit on wooden benches, squeezing into their small classrooms, 6,000 of the 8,000 students are missing.
While the Taliban on Friday said classes would resume for boys who are grade seven and above, the situation for girls in Afghanistan under the hardline group is unclear.
There was no mention of girls schooling in the statement, effectively leaving half of all Afghan children unable to attend secondary education and missing out on weeks of classes.
The only girls in class at Zarghona High School were those below grade six whom the Taliban have said can return.
“We miss the older students. Our wish is for them to come back,” deputy principal Rabia Rashid told The National from her office.
While the Taliban’s education minister Abdul Baqi Haqqani has said women and girls between 13 and 18 would be allowed to go to school, he has yet to set out how and when this will happen.
In the meantime, the Education Ministry is only allowing boys to resume their studies.
Teachers say they are increasingly worried the Taliban has reversed their promises to Afghanistan’s women that they could keep studying.
While the school’s grounds are vibrant and busy in the early morning hours when younger students attend classes, the afternoons - reserved for high school students - are quiet, the classrooms empty, desolate.
Aisha, a 16-year-old grade 10 student, told The National she was “only crying” now and the Taliban’s announcement had left her devastated.
“I knew we couldn’t trust them, they have not changed,” she said from her home, where she tries to keep up with her studies remotely by reading books, memorising poems and meeting with her classmates to study together.
Aisha wants to pursue a career in journalism, believing Afghanistan needed more women in the media.
“I’m afraid they are taking away the dreams of our generation.”
Mila Amini, a 45-year-old first-grade teacher said she remembered the previous Taliban regime well, saying she spent it mostly confined to her home and was unable to start working as a teacher, even though she had just graduated with a literature degree.
Since starting teaching 20 years ago, she says there has been a progressive change in her students – a growing drive within Afghanistan’s women.
“They have gained knowledge and confidence, and they dare to dream bigger,” she said from her classroom, a cramped space with bright green walls and a large blackboard at its front.
She said she hoped her students could one day become Afghanistan’s future leaders.
“When I graduated more than two decades ago, there were few girls – in my class, we were only seven. But things have changed. Girls and women are being educated, and they are changing our country. All of them – the younger ones and the older ones – have ambitions to study hard and to serve Afghanistan,” Ms Amini told The National.
But, she admitted, concerns were growing among teachers about the absence of older students.
During their 1996-2001 regime, women weren’t allowed to go to school and could barely leave their homes, with some of them attending secret underground schools to at least receive basic education.
With an average country-wide literacy rate of 48 per cent, women still rank much lower, at around 30 per cent, according to United Nations figures.
As well as delaying setting the rules for secondary school girls, the Taliban announced women would not be allowed to hold high-ranking government jobs. The new Cabinet is all male and the former Women’s Affairs Ministry has been turned into the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
The education ministry’s Mr Haqqani has said “co-education is in conflict with the principles of Islam and is against the customs and traditions of Afghans.”
He said that universities and schools would be segregated and hijabs would be compulsory on school grounds.
The Taliban has also vowed to adjust school curriculums, removing subjects not in accordance with their interpretation of Islam and Sharia.
Arezu Atahi has been working as a teacher for the past 35 years, spending the years of the Taliban’s previous reign in neighbouring Pakistan.
Now 62, teaching younger girls at Zarghona High School, she says her hopes are fading after the Taliban’s return.
“Afghanistan’s future can only be bright when girls and boys alike receive an education,” she said.
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
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Expo details
Expo 2020 Dubai will be the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia
The world fair will run for six months from October 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021.
It is expected to attract 25 million visits
Some 70 per cent visitors are projected to come from outside the UAE, the largest proportion of international visitors in the 167-year history of World Expos.
More than 30,000 volunteers are required for Expo 2020
The site covers a total of 4.38 sqkm, including a 2 sqkm gated area
It is located adjacent to Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai South
Heavily-sugared soft drinks slip through the tax net
Some popular drinks with high levels of sugar and caffeine have slipped through the fizz drink tax loophole, as they are not carbonated or classed as an energy drink.
Arizona Iced Tea with lemon is one of those beverages, with one 240 millilitre serving offering up 23 grams of sugar - about six teaspoons.
A 680ml can of Arizona Iced Tea costs just Dh6.
Most sports drinks sold in supermarkets were found to contain, on average, five teaspoons of sugar in a 500ml bottle.
Muslim Council of Elders condemns terrorism on religious sites
The Muslim Council of Elders has strongly condemned the criminal attacks on religious sites in Britain.
It firmly rejected “acts of terrorism, which constitute a flagrant violation of the sanctity of houses of worship”.
“Attacking places of worship is a form of terrorism and extremism that threatens peace and stability within societies,” it said.
The council also warned against the rise of hate speech, racism, extremism and Islamophobia. It urged the international community to join efforts to promote tolerance and peaceful coexistence.
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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