With tailoring workshop, Herat professors throw girls a lifeline

HERAT -- Herat province university professors have opened a tailoring workshop to assist their former female students who have been unable to attend university since they were denied access to education eight months ago.

The ban on women's university attendance came after the ban on girls' attendance of school after sixth grade. The latter took effect immediately in August 2021.

Three months ago, out-of-work professor Fatima Ishaqzai, 35, established the workshop with two other female colleagues.

Ishaqzai, who used to teach law at Herat University, said the workshop is meant to create employment opportunities as well as a sense of hope for girls who have been unable to continue their studies.

"We are teaching sewing to 30 girls, most of whom are our former students, and some are school students," she said, adding that the girls had been homebound and were not feeling good about their situation.

"In the current situation, where educational institutions are closed to girls, the workshop will help girls to learn a skill and stay [mentally] healthy," she said.

"They will be able to learn and work," she added, as well as being able to contribute to the family finances.

Ishaqzai said some of her students were in their final year at the university but were not able to graduate, as they were no longer permitted to attend classes.

Frishta, 27, who declined to give her last name, previously taught information technology at Herat University but was dismissed from her position following the closure of universities to girls. She now teaches at the tailoring workshop.

After she lost her job, she began to suffer from stress and anxiety, she told Salaam Times.

So she and a number of professors in similar circumstances "explored options about how to cope with the current difficult situation to help both ourselves and our students".

"By establishing the workshop, we have created a new opportunity for ourselves," she said.

"The closure of universities impacted girls in many ways," she added. "For instance, they lost hope about their future and saw their dreams destroyed."

"It is very important that families and the general public support these girls and save them from their ongoing dire mental and emotional state."

"They truly need more support from society," Frishta said.

Staving off depression

After five months of being confined at home, Najla Amiri, 21, a former first-year student at Herat University's faculty of science, is learning how to sew.

"I was studying with great enthusiasm," Amiri said. "But when the university was closed to girls, I lost my hope and motivation and cried day and night."

Since joining the workshop, "I now have hope for life again," she said.

"Closing down universities for girls meant closing the opportunity for us to learn science and gain knowledge.

"But we shall not accept failure and will continue to progress by learning a skill and profession," she said.

"We will neither allow our dreams to just vanish nor confine ourselves at home."

Also attending the workshop is former 12th-grade student Yagana Nabizada, 17.

Yagana told Salaam Times that many girls are suffering from depression following the closure of schools and universities.

"Seeking to learn a skill will help reduce the prevalence of depression and psychological pressure among girls."

"The more we are present in society, the more motivated and hopeful we become about our future," she said.

"Although learning to sew has become a hobby and a business for us, it can never replace our desire to spend time in the classroom."

"We want to go back to our classrooms and study," she added.

School closures 'painful for all'

Workshop participant Khairia, 18, a former 11th-grade student, said she is counting time until schools reopen for girls in hopes that she can go back.

"No work or activity can take the place of the school classroom," she said.

"My wish is that the schools immediately reopen for girls so that we can continue our studies," she said, adding that there is "no other way" girls can achieve their dreams and goals.

"It has been two years since I last went to school, and the past two years have been the most difficult of my life."

"When I see that boys can go to school, but we cannot, it hurts me a lot. This is really unfair," Khairia said.

Closing schools to girls is un-Islamic and inhumane, she added.

Herat city resident Najiba Haidary, 38, whose daughter is being deprived of her education following the closure of schools, is demanding that they reopen.

She said her daughter is in the 11th grade and has been suffering from psychological distress since she was forced to stop attending school.

"The current situation is painful for all of us," Haidary said. "The closure of schools and universities has destroyed the dreams of girls and made their future dark."

"I was a 7th-grade student before 2001," she said. "I too was deprived of education when girls' schools were closed at that time. It is so unfortunate that my daughter is suffering the same fate almost 25 years later."

At the time, she said, she hoped to become a physician.

But her ambition never came to pass, she said, because after the truncation of her education and her marriage, authorities did not let her attend school when the schools reopened.