HRW calls on Afghan govt to stop attacking girls’ right to education

KABUL (Khaama Press): Human Right Watch (HRW) in a report released, asked the caretaker government to reverse the ban on girls’ education and reopen schools and universities for girls and women in Afghanistan.
The report further highlights that the ruling regime should stop attacking the future of girls, women and the country, adding that currently, Afghanistan is the only country banning girls from secondary school.
The organization expressed concern about the world’s passive approach to dealing with the Taliban, and how the group’s gender-based discrimination has negatively affected the future of women and girls in Afghanistan.
“The Taliban regime has made Afghanistan the only country barring girls from secondary school. They had promised to respect human rights, the rights of women and girls in particular.
However, with the beginning of the new academic year, they sent teenage girls back home,” Sahar Fetrat, Assistant Researcher, Women’s Rights Division of HRW, said.
The caretaker regime reopened secondary school for boys in March 2022 but barred girls above grade six from attending classes. In December, the group expanded the bans to university education for female students and female workers of non-governmental aid organizations, which prompted widespread criticism within Afghanistan and beyond.
“No country can imagine a prosperous future without educated girls and women, and Afghanistan, with the highest level of illiteracy in the world, is facing a dark future,” HRW reported stated. The statement further highlighted how the Taliban doubled down on their disregard for women last year by banning women’s university education too.
Therefore, HRW called on the world leader to take prompt, pragmatic, and meaningful actions against the Taliban’s policies for continuously repressing Afghan women and girls.