The United Nations on Sunday referred to as on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to reopen colleges for ladies in grades 7-12 as “shameful” the anniversary of their boycott from highschool.
The United Nations mentioned it was more and more involved that the coverage, together with different restrictions on fundamental freedoms, would contribute to a deepening of the nation’s financial disaster within the type of higher insecurity, poverty and isolation.
“This is a sad, shameful and completely avoidable anniversary,” mentioned Marcus Potzel, the performing head of the UN mission in Afghanistan.
A yr after the Taliban got here to energy in Afghanistan, the Taliban-led authorities is dominated by hardliners. Teenage ladies are nonetheless barred from college and girls need to cowl themselves from head to toe in public, with solely their eyes seen. The spiritual group has didn’t ship on varied guarantees to get ladies again within the classroom. The ban targets grades 7-12, primarily affecting ladies aged 12 to 18.
The Taliban reopened excessive colleges for boys, instructing ladies to remain at house. The United Nations estimates that over a million ladies have been barred from attending highschool up to now yr.
“There is no credible justification for the exclusion of girls from high school and there is no parallel anywhere in the world. This is very damaging to a generation of girls and to the future of Afghanistan itself,” mentioned Potzel, who can be the UN Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan.
To mark Sunday’s anniversary, 50 ladies despatched a letter titled “A Year of Darkness: A Letter from Afghan Girls to Head to Muslim Countries and Other World Leaders.” The ladies are residents of the capital Kabul, East Nangarhar Province and North Parwan Province.
“Over the previous yr, we’ve got been denied human rights, similar to the appropriate to schooling, the privilege of working, the liberty to reside with dignity, freedom, mobility and speech, and the appropriate to find out and make selections for ourselves. Right,” Azadi, an 18-year-old pupil of Class 11 from Kabul, mentioned within the letter. The ladies whose names are within the letter have solely given their first names.
The United Nations mentioned that the denial of schooling violates essentially the most basic rights of women and girls. The world physique mentioned it raises the chance of marginalization, violence, exploitation and abuse towards ladies and a string of discriminatory insurance policies and practices focusing on girls and ladies since de facto authorities got here to energy in the summertime of 2021. Part of a variety.
The United Nations once more referred to as on the Taliban to reverse the measures they’ve launched to limit the enjoyment of their fundamental rights and freedoms to Afghan girls and ladies.
Since taking energy, the Taliban have struggled to rule and stay remoted internationally. An financial downturn has pushed tens of millions extra Afghans into poverty and starvation because the circulate of international help slows.
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
