UNITED NATIONS, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 16th Aug, 2024) The Taliban “have almost undone two decades of steady progress for education” in Afghanistan, jeopardizing the future of an entire generation, the UN educational, scientific. and the cultural agency (UNESCO) said on Wednesday.
Afghanistan is currently the only country in the world where secondary and higher education is strictly prohibited for girls and women over the age of 12, the Paris-based UN agency said.
The Taliban returned to power on August 15, 2021 and quickly began curtailing women’s rights, it was reported.
Three years to the day after the fall of Kabul, the nation’s capital, at least 1.4 million girls were deliberately denied access to secondary education because of the bans.
In addition to the girls who were already out of school before the Taliban reimposed strict religious legal codes, there are now nearly 2.5 million girls in the country deprived of their right to education, representing 80 percent of Afghan girls of school age.
There has also been a decrease of more than half in the number of students enrolled in universities since 2021, UNESCO said.
As a result, the country will face a shortage of graduates trained for highly skilled jobs, which will only exacerbate development problems, according to the report.
While the education of girls is technically still allowed under the age of 12, the number of those enrolled in primary education has drastically decreased by 2021.
New data from UNESCO shows that Afghanistan had only 5.7 million girls and boys in primary school in 2022, compared to 6.8 million in 2019.
This drop in primary school enrollment is the result of the Taliban’s decision to ban female teachers from teaching boys, exacerbating a teacher shortage. It can also be explained by the lack of incentive for parents to send their children to school in an increasingly difficult socioeconomic environment.
It is feared that the increase in the dropout rate could lead to an increase in child labor and early marriage.
Since 2021, UNESCO has established programs with the support of local communities in 20 of the country’s 34 provinces.
More than 1,000 facilitators, including 780 women, have been trained to deliver literacy courses, benefiting more than 55,000 young people, the majority of whom are women.
UNESCO also invests in distance learning through radio and television, providing financial support and training to Afghan media wishing to develop and broadcast educational programs.
The UN agency continues to ask the international community to fully commit to restoring the right to education for girls and women in Afghanistan, stating that face-to-face education in a classroom is the best possible way to people to learn.
“The right to education cannot be negotiated or compromised. The international community must be fully mobilized to achieve the unconditional reopening of schools and universities to Afghan girls and women,” emphasized Audrey Azoulay, Director General of UNESCO.
Meanwhile, 36 UN experts also called on the international community not to normalize the Taliban in Afghanistan in a joint statement published on Wednesday.
The rights experts, who report to the Human Rights Council and who are not UN staff, include the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett.
“Over the past three years, the people of Afghanistan, especially women and girls, have been subjected to a horrific and intensified attack on their rights and freedoms by a regime that lacks legitimacy and inclusiveness, nullifies all forms of dissent, represses civil society and the media and has shown a flagrant disregard for the principles of justice, non-discrimination, equality and the rule of law,” rights experts said.
Experts have emphasized that the deliberate subjugation of women and girls is so widespread and systematic that it has become crimes against humanity, including the crime of gender-based persecution.
The situation is so extreme that many Afghans say it is best described as “gender apartheid”.
“The people of Afghanistan deserve to live in a country where the rights, dignity and humanity of all are respected and protected. Now more than ever is the time for robust international action to meet their demands with increased protection, support and solidarity,” they concluded.
/ if
(Except translation, this story has not been edited by pipanews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
source link https://www.urdupoint.com/en/world/unesco-says-14-million-girls-banned-from-sch-1854022.html
enclosure_link
source_url_encoded https%3A%2F%2Fwww.urdupoint.com%2Fen%2Fworld%2Funesco-says-14-million-girls-banned-from-sch-1854022.html
