Kabul: UN urged Taliban High schools for girls to reopen on Sunday AfghanistanCondemning the ban, which began exactly a year ago, described it as “tragic and shameful”.
Weeks after the Taliban came to power in August last year, radical Islamists reopened high schools for boys on September 18, 2021, but banned secondary schoolgirls from attending classes.
Months later on 23 March, Ministry of Education Secondary schools for girls were opened, but within hours the Taliban leadership ordered the classes to be closed again.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said that since then more than one million teenage girls across the country have been denied education.
“This is a sad, shameful and completely avoidable anniversary,” said Marcus PotzelThe acting head of UNAMA said in a statement.
“It is very damaging to a generation of girls and the future of Afghanistan,” he said, adding that the ban did not have a parallel in the world.
UN chief Antonio Guterres Urged the Taliban to lift the sanctions.
“A year of lost knowledge and opportunity that they will never get back,” Guterres said on Twitter.
“The girls are in school. The Taliban should let them back in.”
Many Taliban officials say the sanctions are only temporary, but they have also thrown out excuses for the closure – from a lack of funds to periodically redrawing the course along Islamic lines.
Earlier this month, the education minister was quoted by local media as saying that it was a cultural issue, as many villagers did not want their daughters to go to school.
After seizing power on August 15 last year amid a chaotic withdrawal of foreign forces, the Taliban promised a softer version of their hardline Islamic regime, which ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.
But within days he began imposing severe sanctions on girls and women for following his steadfast view of Islam – effectively kicking them out of public life.
In addition to closing high schools for girls, the Taliban have barred women from many government jobs and ordered them to be covered in public, preferably with a broad burqa.
Due to pressure from families and tribal leaders, some high schools for girls have opened in provinces far from the central power bases of Kabul and Kandahar.
Weeks after the Taliban came to power in August last year, radical Islamists reopened high schools for boys on September 18, 2021, but banned secondary schoolgirls from attending classes.
Months later on 23 March, Ministry of Education Secondary schools for girls were opened, but within hours the Taliban leadership ordered the classes to be closed again.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said that since then more than one million teenage girls across the country have been denied education.
“This is a sad, shameful and completely avoidable anniversary,” said Marcus PotzelThe acting head of UNAMA said in a statement.
“It is very damaging to a generation of girls and the future of Afghanistan,” he said, adding that the ban did not have a parallel in the world.
UN chief Antonio Guterres Urged the Taliban to lift the sanctions.
“A year of lost knowledge and opportunity that they will never get back,” Guterres said on Twitter.
“The girls are in school. The Taliban should let them back in.”
Many Taliban officials say the sanctions are only temporary, but they have also thrown out excuses for the closure – from a lack of funds to periodically redrawing the course along Islamic lines.
Earlier this month, the education minister was quoted by local media as saying that it was a cultural issue, as many villagers did not want their daughters to go to school.
After seizing power on August 15 last year amid a chaotic withdrawal of foreign forces, the Taliban promised a softer version of their hardline Islamic regime, which ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.
But within days he began imposing severe sanctions on girls and women for following his steadfast view of Islam – effectively kicking them out of public life.
In addition to closing high schools for girls, the Taliban have barred women from many government jobs and ordered them to be covered in public, preferably with a broad burqa.
Due to pressure from families and tribal leaders, some high schools for girls have opened in provinces far from the central power bases of Kabul and Kandahar.