Afghanistan’s school year begins without over 1 million girls.

Since 2021, the Taliban have banned more than a million Afghan girls from education, which is their fundamental human right

Afghanistan: Today is the start of the new school year in Afghanistan, but girls above grade six are banned from education. This is unjustifiable and in violation of fundamental human rights to education.

Addressing a session of Alliance for Afghan Women’s Economic Resilience, US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken said that “the Taliban continues to deny women and girls’ access to secondary school and universities and blocks their participation in entire sectors of the Afghan economy”. He said the Taliban “also go against the will of the people of Afghanistan”.

Ban on girls’ education in Afghanistan

Many schools in Afghanistan have been closed since August 2021, when the fall of Kabul government to Taliban. In the following months, schools for boys and young men gradually opened, but, for girls and women that hasn’t happened.

In September 2021, the Taliban Authority suspended all forms of formal education for Afghan girls over the age of 12, leaving over 1.1 million girls and young women with no access to formal education.

Later, in December 2022, university education for women was suspended until further notice, affecting over 100,000 female students attending government and private higher education institutions as well.

Currently, 80 percent of school-aged Afghan girls and young women – 2.5 million people — are out of schools.

Afghanistan is the only country in the world to put a ban on girls’ and women’s access to education.

United Nation

According to local sources, many Afghan families are trying to leave the country for their child’s bright future, but they are not given the travel documents by the authorities in Kabul.

Malala Fund also show concerns over the ban on girls education in Afghanistan.

“I hope that on this day we make a commitment that we are determined that the world will not turn its back on the girls and women of #Afghanistan,” explains @Malala #IWD2024

About 80 per cent of Afghanistan’s economy is informal and dominated by women, according to the UN

“Without them, there is no way the Afghan economy and society will recover,” Guterres told the Security Council, reiterating his appeal to the Taliban to keep their promises to women and girls.

written by Khalid Orakzai

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