UN renews calls for IEA to reopen girls schools

KABUL (Agencies): The United Nations has renewed its call for Afghanistan’s Taliban to immediately reopen schools to teenage girls, saying the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has no justification for denying the right to education on any grounds, including religion or tradition.
“The ongoing unlawful denial of girls and young women’s right to education in Afghanistan marks a global nadir in education, impacting an entire gender, a generation, and the future of the country,” a UN panel of experts said this week.
There is no indication the Taliban intend to lift the ban on female education as secondary schools across the South Asian nation reopen later this week after winter break, the statement read.
“Instead, it appears that for the second successive school year, teenage girls will be banned from resuming their studies,” the UN panel said, adding that Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and young women are barred from receiving an education.
Separately, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, while launching the 2022 Human Rights Report on Monday, renewed Washington’s denunciation of curbs on Afghan women’s access to education and work, VOA reported.
Blinken said the IEA leadership “relentlessly discriminates and represses” Afghan women. He noted the authorities have so far issued 80 decrees that restrict women’s freedom of movement and the right to education and work.
“I’ll say very simply that we deplore the edicts,” Blinken told reporters.
He said the order banning Afghan female employees of nongovernmental organizations from workplaces “imperils” millions of Afghans who depend on humanitarian assistance for survival.