NAIROBI, Jun 13 (IPS) – As 1,000 days have passed since girls were banned from secondary school in Afghanistan, the world is marking a tragic milestone for human rights, children’s rights and girls’ rights. The ban wiped out decades of education and development gains, leaving about 80% of Afghan girls and young women of school age out of school.
“As a global community, we must renew our global efforts to ensure that all adolescent girls can exercise their right to education. Gender discrimination is unacceptable and will only harm Afghanistan’s already war-torn country and its long-suffering people. Girls’ right to education is a fundamental right enshrined in international human rights law,” said Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW).
“For all Afghans – men, women, girls and boys – education for young people and girls is essential to rebuilding Afghanistan and ensuring that all Afghans have access to the universal right to education.”
It’s been 1,000 days since Afghan girls were able to attend secondary school. Mehnaz Akber Aziz, CEO of Children’s Global Network Pakistan, said: “This is of great concern to us Pakistanis, our neighbors and stakeholders. How can a country develop when 50% of its population is uneducated? “Afghanistan’s prosperity depends on equal opportunities for all of its population, both boys and girls.”
To commemorate and reflect on this unacceptable milestone, ECWThe Global Fund for Education in Emergencies and Prolonged Crises within the United Nations has launched a compelling second phase. #AfghanGirlsVoices Campaign.
The campaign features inspiring artwork, poetry, cartoons and more from the world’s greatest artists, as well as powerful and moving quotes from Afghan girls who were denied their right to education but remain hopeful that their rights will be restored .
“Girls in Afghanistan are strong, resilient and do not give up on their hopes and dreams. Being deprived of education for a thousand days is a serious injustice to Afghan girls. Their resolutions should be viewed as opportunities, not obstacles. With each passing day, more and more girls are forced into marriage due to lack of future prospects. ECW Global Champion Somaya Faruqi said:
“The world must listen to the voices of Afghan girls who demand only one thing,” Faruqi said. The most basic right to education must be met. With access to education, Afghan girls can contribute to nation-building and drive positive change in their communities. “All Afghan girls deserve equal opportunities to learn and grow, and it is our undeniable duty to fight for their right to education and their future.”
Afghanistan’s gender apartheid, which denies girls and women the right to education, surprised Antara Ganguli, director of the UN Girls’ Education Initiative. “We stand in solidarity with Afghan women and girls fighting for their basic human rights. The international community must do more to end these injustices and ensure that every child in Afghanistan has access to an inclusive, safe and gender-equitable education. do.”
In August 2023, Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education, Sherif and Faruqi, former leader of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team, launched the first phase of the #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign. Since the campaign launched, millions of people around the world have viewed and supported it.
“The world must unite for Afghan girls. Denying people the right to quality education is abhorrent and violates the United Nations Charter, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and fundamental human rights. “The global #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign allows people around the world to advocate for human rights and gender justice by sharing stories of courage, hope and resilience,” said Brown, who also chairs the ECW Senior Steering Group.
This second phase is already bringing together additional global leaders and prominent supporters, including best-selling authors such as Khaled Hosseini, who has written: kite flyer; ECW Global Champion Christina Lamb I am Malala Malala Fund co-founder and Ziauddin Yousafzai, ECW Global Champion and Al-Jazeera TV Chief Presenter; Folly Bah Thibault, co-founder of Global Citizen; Mick Sheldrick, 2023 Global Citizen Award winner and founder of LEARN Afghanistan; Pashtana Durrani, Director, United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative; Antara Ganguly; And many more; Including several leading Afghan women activists.
Benafsha Efaf Amiri, an Afghan lawyer and women’s rights activist, said education is a basic right for all girls and women. Denying education to Afghan girls violates their human rights and will only harm the country’s development and future for future generations.
Richard Bennett, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan, said: “We must all advocate for the right to education for every girl in Afghanistan. “Education is not only a human right that cannot wait, it is also a powerful catalyst for a better, more equal and prosperous world.”
Ahmed Hussein, Canada’s Minister of International Development, emphasized: “Canada supports the right to education for all Afghan girls. Denying access to education impacts the ability of women and girls to exercise their basic human rights and reach their full potential. “The consequences of this ban will reverberate for generations and must be repealed.”
The situation is already serious. Nearly 30% of Afghan girls have never received primary education, and the glimmer of hope that education can provide to emerge from protracted crises and sudden disasters is increasingly eluding Afghan girls and young women.
ECW is urging the global community to act quickly to preserve profits that are dwindling every day while the ban lasts. Significant profits are at stake. For example, enrollment increased tenfold across all levels of education, from 1 million in 2001 to 10 million in 2018. By August 2021, four out of ten primary school students in Afghanistan were girls.
With this leap forward has come social and economic growth and other improvements that have benefited broad segments of Afghan society. The change in leadership had major ramifications for all aspects of Afghanistan’s economy and society. Today, more than half of the population – 23.7 million people – are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, 6.3 million are refugees and basic human rights are at risk.
Girls and boys are at serious risk of gender-based violence, child labor, child marriage and other human rights violations. Despite the urgent need for a total of $3 billion in humanitarian response funding, only $221 million has been received to date. Uno Tea.
After ECW started investing Afghanistan In 2017, the Fund invested $88.8 million to provide quality holistic education support to more than 230,000 children. ECW’s multi-year investment focuses on community-based learning, reaching girls and boys through a range of activities such as providing teaching and learning materials, teacher training, and mental health and psychosocial support.
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© Interpress Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Interpress Service
