Afghan Girls Defy Taliban Ban, Share Letters of Hope From Secret Schools

In the hidden rooms of Afghanistan, twenty-one girls are quietly refusing to let a government's decree become the final word on their futures. Under Taliban rule, which has barred girls from formal education beyond sixth grade since 2022, these young women gather in unmarked spaces to study, and this week they shared their letters with CBS News. Their words do not call for revolution — they ask only for the ordinary: a job, a family, the freedom to read. In the long arc of human history, few acts have been as quietly radical as the simple decision to keep learning when the world has told you t