Afghan girls stare at an uncertain future one year after Taliban school ban

Since the Taliban takeover last year, girls find it difficult to pursue education. Here is a photo of Afghan girls attending a class in an underground school, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, July 28, 2022 (AP Photo/Eb rahim Noroozi)

For most teenage girls in Afghanistan, it’s been a year since they set foot in a classroom. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Arefeh 40-year-old, an Afghan woman leaves an underground school, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, July 30, 2022. She attends this underground school with her daughter, who is not allowed to go to public school. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Afghan girls attend a class in an underground school, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, July 30, 2022.(AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

The Taliban have banned girls from continuing their education past the sixth grade. While the Taliban have permitted women to continue attending universities, this exception will become irrelevant when there are no more girls graduating from high schools. In the picture, Afghan girls are seen holding illegal protest to demand the right to education in a private home in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Underground schools remain an alternative but with limitations, reports the Associated Press. In this picture, an Afghan girl looks out the door of an underground school, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, July 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Maulvi Bakhtullah teaches girls to read the Quran in the Noor Mosque, in outside the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug 3, 2022. Bakhtullah, the head of the mosque, said that the number of girls who come to this mosque to learn Quran has multiplied after the closure of public schools. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Fereshteh 11-year-old, a Hazara Shiite student poses for a photo in her classroom in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, April 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

For 10 years, after the Taliban lost power in Afghanistan in 2001, women continued to go to school and work. Now, the international community is demanding that the ruling Taliban resume schooling for girls. Here is a picture of an empty classroom of a Hazara Shiite school is seen in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, July 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Afghan girls attend a religious school, which remained open since the last year's Taliban takeover, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)