Early Wednesday morning, at her home on a hilltop in the west of Kabul, 15-year-old Marzia packed her bag for school, for the first time since the Taliban took power last August. “I became so, so happy when I heard school was restarting,” she told the BBC. “It makes me hopeful about the future again.”  round 200 other girls had also made their way to the Sayed ul Shuhada school, far fewer than usual, as pupils and their families debated whether or not lessons would actually start and whether it would be safe for them to attend. Since August, in most of Afghanistan, only girls’ primary schools have remained open, along with all boys’ schools. Today as a new academic year began, girls’ secondary schools were finally expected to re-open along with other institutes.