The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has expressed concern over the one-thousandth day of girls’ schools being blocked above the sixth grade by the Taliban group. They emphasized that children’s rights, especially those of girls, cannot be compromised for political reasons. They also described the one-thousandth day of the girls’ education ban as “disturbing and worrisome”.
UNICEF has released a report stating that for a thousand days, Afghan girls have been kept out of schools by the Taliban group. This group has deprived girls of 3 billion hours of education.
The Fund adds that 1.5 million girls in Afghanistan have been deprived of education for nearly three years and emphasises that the consequences of these deprivations will lead to mental and psychological challenges for female students.
Furthermore, the blockade of schools is leading to an increase in underage/forced marriages, malnutrition, and other health issues among female students in Afghanistan.
It is said that UNICEF has deemed the one-thousandth day of the ban on girls’ education concerning and has called for the urgent reopening of schools by the Taliban group.
Moreover, several female students in Kabul, on the brink of the one-thousandth day of school closures, have demanded the reopening of schools by the Taliban.
Najma, an eleventh-grade student whose school was closed to her, told the Afghan Women’s News Agency: “We are on the verge of the one-thousandth day of school closures, yet the Taliban group has once again deprived girls of participating in this year’s Konkur exam, university entrance exam, and has not reopened schools for us.”
Najma says that although the Taliban initially claimed that this ban was temporary during their takeover, girls have not been allowed to return to school after a thousand days.
Nargis, a twelfth-grade student in one of the high schools in Kabul whose school was closed to her like other girls, said: “If schools were reopened, I would now be entering university and pursuing my studies there. In the current closed situation, we are left uncertain about our future.”
Nargis added that our demand as female students to the United Nations is to consider women’s and girls’ rights, reopen schools and universities, allow women to travel, provide them with work opportunities, and apply serious pressure on the Taliban to cancel the orders restricting women and girls.
Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the Taliban, has issued more than seventy orders regarding women and girls since their renewed dominance over the country, depriving women and girls entirely of the right to education, work, social activities, political engagement, and training. Although initially stating that schools would be closed to girls until further notice, it has been nearly three years now and there has been no directive to reopen schools, and education for girls above the sixth grade is still prohibited in the country.
- نویسنده : Afghanistan Women News Agency
- منبع خبر : Afghanistan Women News Agency
