Education is still forbidden for girls in Afghanistan. My heart broke when I saw my brother going to school.

Education is still forbidden for girls in Afghanistan. My heart broke when I saw my brother going to school.

Every day, I wake up with the hope of returning to my school. The Taliban constantly say that they will reopen the schools, but it has been almost two years and I don’t believe them anymore. It breaks my heart.

17-year-old Habiba blinks her eyes, clenches her lips, and tries not to cry as she says this sentence.

Habiba and her former classmates, Mahtab and Tamanna, are among hundreds of thousands of teenage girls who have been prevented by the Taliban from attending secondary and high school in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is the only country in the world where such a restriction is imposed on girls.

After a year and a half of losing their right to a normal life, their grief is still fresh.

These girls say that they are afraid the strong global reaction to what has happened to them will fade away, while they live with this pain every day. This pain has intensified this week with the start of a new school year, as schools continue without their presence.