Thirteen-year-old Zala Sherani loves karate, martial arts and swimming, and she is preparing to start high school next term.
"I feel very excited, and a bit nervous. And confident," she told the ABC.
"My favourite subjects are chemistry and biology. They are interesting because they tell us about the world and ourselves."
The young teenager – the eldest of five daughters – arrived in Melbourne as a refugee with her parents and sisters from Afghanistan last year in the wake of the Taliban takeover.
She knows that going to school is an opportunity she wouldn't have if she was still in Afghanistan.
The Taliban came to power with the fall of Kabul in 2021 and issued a ban on girls' education beyond primary school.
High school classes resumed in Afghanistan this week – but only for the boys.
"That is totally unfair, because girls and boys are equal. They should be treated equally," Zala said.
"I have a lot of ambitions, it would have not been possible to achieve them if I were in Afghanistan.
"In Afghanistan, there was always war. There were not enough doctors to treat patients and I had dreamed to become a successful doctor and help them."
Ban on learning for girls
It has been 18 months since girls have been able to go to high school, and the Taliban has said schools will remain closed for girls for now.
"A committee comprising of religious scholars has been set up to pave the way for girls education in light of Islamic rules," Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen told the ABC.
"Girls secondary school education is delayed until the committee finalises its work," he said.
But he was not aware of a timeline for their decision.
The ban has left girls like Aaisha – not her real name – in limbo.
"Sixth grade is nothing for us – we want to continue to high school," she told non-profit organisation Save the Children.
"If we only graduate from sixth grade, we can't do anything – we can't get a job, we can't go to university."
Save the Children called for the Taliban to immediately reverse the high school ban for girls, saying a failure to do so "will drive up child marriage, exclude half of future generations from the workforce and entrench families further into poverty", which could profoundly damage the country's future.
Aaisha's mother wants her daughters to be educated to help support the country.
"If there are no opportunities for higher education, we need to marry our daughters at a younger age because it is not safe in the community," she said.
"I'm uneducated and I can't even read a road sign to know where I am and where I'm not, but I want my daughters to be able to do that."
The head of the UNICEF in Afghanistan, Fran Equiza, also called for authorities to ensure girls could resume their studies.
"As the new school year in Afghanistan begins, we rejoice in the millions of boys and girls returning to primary school classrooms. Yet, we are deeply disappointed not to see adolescent girls going back to their classrooms as well," he said in a tweet.
Girls' education not against religion
Another student, Laila – not her real name – aspires to be an artist.
She told Save the Children she wanted the government to allow girls to go to school again.
"In our religion of Islam, education is allowed for both boys and girls," she said.
"Our Prophet Mohammed said education is an obligation for boys and girls. I don't know why they have banned school for girls."
In Australia, Zala's mother, Qamaria Sherani, agreed that banning education for girls was not in line with Islamic law, which she has studied.
"This is against Islamic point of view, it's against the law, against the principles, against the norms," she said.
One of the key reasons the Sherani family left everything behind – their parents, siblings and home, and, most painfully, their 18-year-old adopted son – was so the girls could have an education and a bright future in Australia.
"One of my daughters, she asked me: 'I won't be able to go to school anymore? I won't be able to achieve my dreams?'" Ms Sherani said.
"I have my own tragedy in my own journey in education … After marriage, after the kids, I started studying law.
"But unfortunately, after graduating from law, the Taliban came in ... Everything was changed. So I wouldn't be able to fulfil my dreams."
Fathers want their daughters to learn
Neda Abdurahhimzai is 13 and is attending high school in Melbourne, after arriving in February with her family last year.
The Abdurahhimzai family lived under Taliban rule for six months before they were granted humanitarian visas in Australia due to the threats they faced.
Neda said her favourite subject was maths, and, like Zala, she also hopes to be a doctor one day.
"I want to help people," she said.
She told the ABC she would feel awful if she was in Afghanistan and not able to go to school – a reality that her friends and cousins face.
Her father, Sami Abdurahhimzai, said the situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover became "unliveable", and it was unsafe to send his daughter to school at that time.
"It was very difficult to not go to school. I couldn't learn anything, and I couldn't see my friends," Neda said.
Mr Abdurahhimzai said women were an integral part of the Afghanistan community and contributed to the governing of the country, the economy, and the education and health sectors.
"It's a shame, particularly for the nation, that girls are not allowed to study," he said.
"I think losing that opportunity, in depriving females each day from their schooling … it is a loss that is irrevocable."
Zala's father, Hameed Sherani, said the ban on schooling was "outrageous".
"This is actually a conspiracy to take Afghanistan back to the Stone Age," he said.
"This is systemic enslaving and marginalisation and disabling of Afghan women."
Psychological impacts and possible solutions
Sooriya Arya, a researcher at the American University of Central Asia, has engaged with girls in Afghanistan about their experiences of being deprived of education and said their responses were "heartbreaking".
"It's very upsetting that these girls are facing like psychological problems … the kind of challenges that no-one should face at a very young age," she said.
She said she was also concerned about an increase in child marriage and reports of suicides in girls and young women.
Soon after a ban on university education for women in December, the Taliban's Education Minister Neda Mohammad Nadeem told state broadcaster RTA: "We told girls to have proper hijab but they didn't and they wore dresses like they are going to a wedding ceremony."
"Girls were studying agriculture and engineering, but this didn't match Afghan culture. Girls should learn, but not in areas that go against Islam and Afghan honour."
Ms Arya called on international human rights organisations to lobby for change, and added that online education for girls and women should be a priority.
"For the women of Afghanistan, they do not want some kind of symbolic act — they want something real, that can change their life, that can give them hope and motivation," she said.
Mr Abdurahhimzai said he thought the best way to advocate for girls' education was for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation – an alliance of 56 Muslim majority countries – to have dialogue with the Taliban, believing they would have more sway than Western countries pushing for change.
Mr Sherani said there were also steps the Australian government could take to improve the lives of Afghans who fled here, including having easier pathways for migration for families, like his, that had been torn apart.
"It is absolutely a healing initiative that will have a positive impact on every individual facet of Australian society, to reunite the families," he said.
His daughter Zala echoed his plea.
"My brother is in great danger. He's incomplete without us, and we are alone without him," she said.
"We request the government to issue him a visa as soon as soon as possible, so that we are united again."
Additional reporting by Tracey Shelton
