Taliban have deliberately deprived 1.4 million Afghan girls of schooling through bans, UNESCO says
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He Taliban They have deliberately deprived 1.4 million Afghan girls from schooling through bans, a UN agency said Thursday. Afghanistan It is the only country in the world that prohibits secondary and higher education for women.
The Taliban, who seized power in 2021, banned education for girls from sixth grade onwards because they said it did not conform to their interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law. They did not ban education for boys and show no signs of taking steps to reopen classrooms and campuses for girls and women.
UNESCO She said at least 1.4 million girls have been deliberately denied access to secondary education since the takeover, an increase of 300,000 since her previous count in April 2023, with more girls reaching the 12-year age limit each year.
“If we add the girls who were already out school “Before the bans were introduced, there were now nearly 2.5 million girls in the country deprived of their right to education, representing 80% of Afghan girls of school age,” UNESCO said.
The Taliban could not immediately be reached for comment. Access to primary education has also declined since the Taliban took power in August 2021, with 1.1 million fewer girls and boys attending school, according to UNESCO data.
The UN agency warned that authorities have “virtually wiped out two decades of steady progress in education in Afghanistan.” “The future of an entire generation is now at risk,” it added.
According to UNESCO, Afghanistan had 5.7 million girls and boys in primary school in 2022, down from 6.8 million in 2019. The drop in enrolment was a result of the Taliban’s decision to ban female teachers from teaching boys, but could also be explained by parents’ lack of incentives to send their children to school in an increasingly difficult economic environment.
“UNESCO is alarmed by the harmful consequences of this growing rate of school dropouts, which could lead to an increase in child labour and early marriage,” it said.
The Taliban celebrated three years of rule at Bagram air base on Wednesday, but made no mention of the country’s difficulties or promises to help the struggling population.
Decades of conflict and instability have left millions of Afghans on the brink of hunger and starvation, and unemployment is high.
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