UNESCO calls for restoration of Afghan girls’ education rights
An estimated 2.4 million Afghan girls remain excluded from secondary education five years after the Taliban took over the country, a U.N. agency said Tuesday, renewing a call for an immediate restoration of their right to education, reports BritPanorama.
UNESCO, the Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, stated that the ongoing exclusion of women and girls from education constitutes a grave violation of their fundamental rights.
“Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls and women are formally banned from secondary and higher education,” Hoda Jaberian, UNESCO’s program coordinator for education in emergencies, said in a video news conference. “Five years is not a temporary interruption in a child’s education. It is clearly almost an entire secondary school cycle.”
Jaberian reiterated that UNESCO continues to call for the immediate and unconditional restoration of girls’ and women’s right to secondary and higher education, describing it as a basic human right that is not negotiable.
The Taliban seized power on August 15, 2021, as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew from Afghanistan after two decades of war. Shortly thereafter, the group barred girls from secondary schools and later extended restrictions to higher education, employment, and other sectors, effectively excluding women and girls from public life.
Despite appeals from the United Nations, humanitarian groups, human rights advocates, and several Islamic nations, the Taliban has maintained the ban, insisting the issue is a domestic matter.
Jaberian indicated these restrictions are reversing two decades of progress in education that Afghanistan had achieved. While access to schooling for girls was severely limited in 2001, by 2021 nearly 1 million girls were enrolled in secondary education.
“Afghanistan had made really major progress in expanding girls’ access to education,” Jaberian said. “But unfortunately, much of that progress now has been completely reversed.”
UNESCO has been supporting education in Afghanistan by implementing community-based education, literacy, and skills development programs. These initiatives often take place in community spaces, including the homes of literacy facilitators, with the awareness of the authorities. The agency noted there are over 1,000 literacy facilitators, most trained by UNESCO and its partners.
“While the restriction remains, we cannot abandon Afghan learners,” Jaberian stated. “UNESCO works with communities and our partners to preserve every possible pathway to learning.”
