UNITED NATIONS – The Taliban will announce a framework that allows girls to attend school in Afghanistan “soon”, a senior United Nations (UN) official said, after four weeks in which Afghan boys have been allowed a secondary education but girls have not.
“The de facto education minister told us they are working on a framework – which they will announce soon – that will allow all girls to go to secondary school, and we are expecting that to happen very soon,” Unicef deputy executive director Omar Abdi said here in New York yesterday.
For weeks now, the Taliban has been saying that it will allow girls to return to school as soon as possible.
The Islamist group – notorious for its brutal and oppressive rule from 1996 to 2001 – has faced international fury after effectively excluding women and girls from schools and work across the country, while incrementally stripping away Afghans’ freedoms.
The Taliban permitted girls to attend primary school from the start, but has maintained that neither the girls nor their female teachers could return to secondary school yet.
Taliban officials have said that can happen only once the girls’ security and strict gender segregation can be ensured under the group’s restrictive interpretation of shariah law, adding that more time is needed to put this framework in place.
Abdi noted that, as he spoke, “millions of girls of secondary school age are missing out on education for the 27th consecutive day”.
He said the UN has urged the Taliban authorities now governing Afghanistan “not to wait” on educating girls.
Abdi said he had visited Afghanistan the week before and met with Taliban authorities.
“In all my meetings, the education of girls was the first issue that I raised.”
He said he received “affirmations” of the Taliban’s commitment to allow girls to attend primary school.
As for secondary school, he said, they are allowed “only in five provinces”, adding that the UN is pushing for the right to be implemented throughout the country.
A 14-year-old girl identified as Asma this week expressed both her frustration with the situation and her determination to pursue an education.
“Will I be able to go to school or not? This is my biggest concern. I want to learn everything, from the easiest to the hardest subjects. I want to be an astronaut, or an engineer or architect... this is my dream,” she told Amnesty International.
“Education is not a crime.
“If the Taliban announces that getting an education is a crime, then we will commit this crime. We will not give up.” – AFP, October 16, 2021
