When Education Is Denied Poem by Elizabeth Padillo Olesen

The days in school after 6th grade
Are over for young Afghan girls
The prospect for work in the future
to be what one wants to be
Is denied by their rulers, the Taliban.

No more school days
from Mondays to Fridays
No more subjects, books
experiments and tests.
No more games, music
and laughter in classrooms
with their friends and teachers.
School rooms beyond 6th grade
are only for boys and not for girls.

One wonders
why young girls
in Afghanistan
would rather wish
to run away or die?

Restore the school days
for all the girls and women
in Afghanistan!