Reportages of Balkh region VII: A story of Keshendeh girls' scool

Foreign guests are squatting with fifty girls in the shade of the mountain, a hundred meters from the school house. The morning – girls shift – is over and now it's the boys shift. Usually boys and girls have separate schools in Afghanistan; in Keshendeh the girls don't have their own school.
Although The Prophet Mohamed, Peace Be upon him, said: “seeking knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim, male or female”, in Afghanistan men's education is considered more important than that of a woman's. This is why the boy schools tend to be built before the girls’ schools are. Sometimes a school is not yet built for the girls and so the girls have to use the boys’ school. This is what happened in Keshendeh: the little old school high at the shore of the river has to accommodate three shifts. The classes are full. There are not enough stools and desks – the clever boys take plastic chairs with them from home. As the new boys school is being built the building of the girls school has been delayed due to arguments over land.
The direction of the Aqkupruk School is not happy with the fact that the foreign visitors want to talk with the girls. Finally they agree to the visitors talking to the girls, but pictures are not allowed to be taken. The foreign visitors’ explanations do not help - the wall of mistrust remains up. This can happen because the Afghans have different experiences with the outside world. What influences the foreigners bring with them? It is unknown so it's best to keep away from them...
How do you interview three classes of school girls at once? Especially when the on listening male teachers try to answer for the shy young girls? Some female teachers are also squatting here. But they are apathetic and don't answer any questions. It seems unbelievable that just forty kilometers away you can find Sholgara village girls school, where every female teacher seems to be bursting with good intentions and energy.
And then a miracle happens. One young girl stands up and asks the visitors for help. You foreigners have to help our village women, she says bravely. We need our school house. We need educated teachers. We need a laboratory to study biology. We need computers to get present day knowledge. And we need the Internet and English teachers to communicate with the outside world.