UNICEF urges Taliban to lift ban on girls’ education as new school year begins

The United Nations Youngsters’s Fund (UNICEF) on Saturday known as on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to instantly elevate the continued ban on ladies’ secondary training, warning that the restriction threatens the way forward for tens of millions of Afghan ladies who’ve been disadvantaged of their proper to study because the Taliban regained energy in August 2021. 

In a press release marking the third anniversary of the ban, UNICEF Government Director Catherine Russell underscored that the Taliban’s continued restrictions on training could have dire penalties for the nation’s economic system, well being system, and total growth. She acknowledged: “As a brand new faculty yr begins in Afghanistan, 400,000 extra ladies at the moment are disadvantaged of their proper to training, bringing the full quantity to 2.2 million … If these vivid younger ladies proceed to be denied an training, the repercussions will final for generations.”

UNICEF urged the Taliban to reverse their resolution and permit all ladies to return to highschool instantly. The company known as on the worldwide group to proceed advocating for Afghan ladies’ rights and to help initiatives guaranteeing that no baby is left behind. Russell concluded: “The way forward for Afghanistan’s ladies and the nation as an entire is determined by training.”

The Taliban initially promised to reopen secondary colleges for ladies however have repeatedly reneged on their commitments. Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet beforehand described the restriction as “deeply damaging for Afghanistan,” stating that the systematic exclusion of ladies from training exacerbates the nation’s humanitarian disaster and weakens its financial future. In December 2024, stories emerged that the Taliban have been contemplating an additional ban on girls finding out in medical colleges, together with nursing, midwifery, and gynecology. UNICEF warned that such a coverage would instantly halt the medical training of hundreds of ladies, jeopardizing girls’s and youngsters’s entry to important healthcare providers. 

Afghanistan stays one of many worst humanitarian crises on the earth, with roughly 23.7 million individuals, together with 12.3 million kids, requiring humanitarian help. The nation struggles with battle, displacement, meals insecurity, and climate-related disasters, and the Taliban’s takeover in 2021 additional exacerbated Afghanistan’s financial instability.

UNICEF has labored to mitigate the consequences of the training ban by offering different studying pathways. In 2023, UNICEF supported 686,000 kids by 21,355 community-based training lessons. The group has distributed academic supplies, textbooks, and high-performance tents. Moreover, UNICEF is working to reopen colleges which were closed for years as a consequence of insecurity and lack of funding whereas additionally coaching and compensating academics.