#PHOTO STORY 1 PROFESSIONAL#

Hancock, a professional photojournalist, вЂњis a visual reporter of facts. It is their objective to produce direct, truthful and bold images that tell the stories for those who have no voice.ДЄccording to Mark M. Until those orders come, uncertainty continues to grip the students of Kabul University, not only about when they will go back to school but also the quality of education they will receive under Mr GhairatвЂ™s pro-Taliban leadership when they do.вЂњA picture is worth a thousand words.вЂќ That is the motto of a photojournalist. Mr Hakimi claims that when he asked Mr Ghairat and the ministry representative when students could expect new information on the resumption of classes, both responded by saying they were вЂњwaiting for ordersвЂќ. Mr Ghairat, at least, seems sympathetic to the students so far.вЂќ вЂњBut even under Prof Babury, we always found that senior staff cannot or donвЂ™t want to understand our problems. He couldnвЂ™t talk about issues in a very sophisticated way. вЂњThough when I met him, I was expecting someone who would behave more like a university chancellor. Safiullah Hakimi, a fourth-year economics major who last year was president of the universityвЂ™s students' union, has, together with a group of student body representatives, met with Mr Ghairat and a senior official from the Ministry of Higher Education to brainstorm solutions to resource issues. Among Kabul UniversityвЂ™s 25,000 students, nearly half of whom moved to the capital from other provinces for their education, frustration has mounted.

With the country facing an extreme financial crisis that has affected budgets across all ministries, public university students have been asked to remain home indefinitely. The rules have been criticised heavily by many within Afghanistan and the international community, as they place new constraints on an education system already coping with a desperate shortage of teachers. Private universities, on the other hand, have reopened fully, albeit with new rules requiring men and women to either be taught separately or in shared classrooms partitioned by a curtain. After a week of chaos and uncertainty, university staff returned to their posts.Д«ut teaching at public institutions, including Kabul University, remains suspended.

No one had expected, however, what would occur later that afternoon, when Taliban fighters entered Kabul and seized control of the central government.

Rumours swirled that morning that the holiday period would last longer than normal this year, as the Afghan government sought to curb public life to stem the tide of a new Covid-19 wave. All of our leaders left the country and we are the ones left facing the Taliban. вЂњWhat is going on in Afghanistan right now is the real joke,вЂќ Mahmoud said in a phone call from Kabul. The student, a 20-year-old law undergraduate identified by the pseudonym Mahmoud, told The National he set up the account to highlight the undoing of Afghan education.

The admission has been shared widely on social media by students amused by what they regard as a joke on the Taliban and by Taliban sympathisers amused at the hoodwinking of the international media. Mr Ghairat has a journalism degree but was previously unknown in Afghan academia and has no pedagogical qualifications. Students segregated as university term resumes in KabulД«ut this week, the Twitter account under Mr GhairatвЂ™s name posted a new tweet in which the author admitted it was fake and had been set up by a student frustrated with the suspension of classes and the appointment of Mr Ghairat after the Taliban sacked his predecessor, Osman Babury, on September 20.

Photo story 1