UN condemns ban on Afghan girls’ education

The United Nations urged the Taliban to reopen high schools for girls across Afghanistan. There is an ongoing ban on education for Afghan girls for the last year. The international organization termed it “tragic and shameful”. The UN came up with the reaction on Sunday (September 18, 2022).

Earlier on September 18 in 2021, the Taliban reopened high schools for boys after weeks they took control of Afghanistan. However, they banned secondary schoolgirls from attending classes, which resulted in a great loss of education for the girls of that country.

According to AFP, “Months later on March 23 in 2022, the education ministry opened secondary schools for girls, but within hours the Taliban leadership ordered classes to be shut again.”

“Since then more than a million teenage girls have been deprived of education across the country, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said,” AFP added.

Markus Potzel, the acting head of UNAMA in a statement said, “This is a tragic, shameful, and entirely avoidable anniversary.”

He also said that there was no similar incident in the world.

According to the UN representative, it is disgraceful and hazardous to a generation of Afghan girls. It is a matter of deep concern. The incident will badly impact the future of that country.

UN chief Antonio Guterres urged the Taliban to revoke the ban.

“A year of lost knowledge and opportunity that they will never get back,” Guterres said on Twitter.

He also said that the Taliban must let the girls go to their schools as they belong in that place.

According to AFP, “Several Taliban officials say the ban is only temporary, but they have also wheeled out a litany of excuses for the closures — from a lack of funds to the time needed to remodel the syllabus along Islamic lines.”

According to AFP, earlier, the education minister said that it was a cultural issue. The minister also claimed that many rural people are reluctant to send their daughters to school.

The Taliban imposed severe restrictions on girls and women to comply with their austere vision of Islam — effectively squeezing them out of public life.

They also imposed many other instructions including putting a bar on women from doing government jobs, covering up the women while going out of their houses, and so on.

Education is one of the basic rights of human beings. Some high schools for girls have remained open in some provinces away from Kabul and Kandahar because of pressure from families and tribal leaders.