Thousand days without education: UN condemns Afghan girls’ plight

KABUL (TOLOnews): Sima Bahous, Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), has raised concerns over the ongoing restrictions faced by women and girls in Afghanistan. Speaking out more than a thousand days after girls above the sixth grade were barred from education, Bahous highlighted the continued deprivation of rights, freedom, and voices of Afghan women.

In a poignant message on X, Bahous emphasized that the struggle for women’s rights in Afghanistan is a shared responsibility and urged global solidarity.

“A stark reminder that the assault on the rights, freedoms, and voices of Afghan women and girls continues. We cannot abandon Afghan women and girls in their fight for their right to live lives of their own choosing. Their struggle is our collective responsibility,” she said.

Roya, a student, told TOLOnews: “I studied for nine and a half years, worked hard, and dreamed about my goals, but all of it has been wasted. We have been at home for a thousand days.”

Meanwhile, Amnesty International also called on the Islamic Emirate to reopen schools for girls in Afghanistan. According to Amnesty International, Afghan girls have been deprived of the right to education due to “discriminatory and unjust policies.”

Amnesty International added: “For 1000 days, Afghan girls have been deprived of their right to education, locked out of their schools due to the discriminatory and unjust Taliban policies violating international law. The Taliban must immediately re-open all secondary schools to girls.”

Tafsir Siahposh, a women’s rights activist, says: “The Islamic Emirate makes promises to us every day, and we are always waiting for their next decree; but unfortunately, they have never wanted to act according to their promises.”

Although the Islamic Emirate has not recently commented on the reopening or non-reopening of schools for girls above the sixth grade, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Higher Education, amid a wave of reactions, published an audio recording of Mawlana Abdul Ali Deobandi about the education of girls and women.

In part of this recording, Mawlana Abdul Ali Deobandi, a religious scholar, said: “Islamic countries have established schools for women where they learn writing and lessons. Islamic countries have remained Islamic in name only. Islamic countries are influenced by infidels and cannot establish Islamic governments and enforce Quranic rules because they fear the infidels.”

The reactions to the ban on women’s and girls’ education in the country have resumed while a large number of human rights activists, organizations, and prominent individuals, including Richard Bennett, the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur for Afghanistan, Gordon Brown, the UN’s special for Global Education, Rina Amiri, the US special envoy for Afghanistan’s women, girls and human rights, have joined the campaign to raise the voices of Afghan girls.