In the 2 years since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, the women have slowly had almost all their rights being taken away and imposition upon imposition put upon them. Recently, the Taliban banned women from attending school past the age of 12 or the 6th grade.
Women had already been banned from private and public universities in the country with immediate effect in December of 2022 and now even school education has been restricted for women. While the Taliban had reportedly said soon after coming into power that women’s rights will be respected, that hasn’t apparently been upheld because soon after women were first excluded from cabinet posts.
Then slowly one by one rights were taken away and restrictions imposed like women being told to cover themselves fully, being banned from enterings parks, gyms, foreign and domestic NGOs being told to suspend from employing women, and beauty salons being banned.
But Afghan women are not sitting quiet and have started a campaign with the United Nations (UN) appealing for their right to education.
What Are Afghan Women Doing?
UN’s Education Cannot Wait global fund just launched a global campaign on 15th August 2023 to protest against the ban on education that Afghan women are facing. Engineering student Somaya Faruqi who is studying in the US is the face of the campaign with the motto #AfghanGirlsVoices and calls out for the right of education for Afghan women and girls be respected.
Somaya had to flee her own country and is among the hundreds of other girls who had to do so in order to do something as basic as get their education.
Faruqi along with nine other girls from her robotics team had to run to Qatar to finish high school and eventually getting a scholarship from there, Faruqi is now in her second year of engineering at Sacramento State University in California.
Read More: In Pics: Afghanistan’s First Woman Street Artist Beautifully Portrays The Life of A Woman There
A BBC report told how Nina, a 19-year-old Afghan girl had to flee her own country to Bangladesh in order to continue her education abroad with help by the Asian University for Women (AUW).
She apparently lied to airport officials when questioned that “The Taliban don’t allow women to travel alone so I said my mother was sick in Pakistan.”
But perhaps more disheartening was when she realised that “On the day when I left I was crying that I might never see my mother’s face again, it was so hard for me,” and how “It broke my younger sister’s heart. When I think about them, it hurts.”
Speaking to AFP, Faruqi said that “This campaign is meant to bring the attention of the world again to the girls in Afghanistan, and (their) education issues,” and how “Afghanistan seems to be forgotten.”
She further added that “We have to make sure that (girls and women) have access to equal opportunities, and they have access to education because education is the key to freedom.”
UN special envoy for global education, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown also was reported to have said that the state of women’s rights in Afghanistan “should count as a crime against humanity, and it should be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court.”
Faruqi in a UN statement said that “Girls have been banned from public spaces — schools, gyms, parks. There is nothing allowed for them to do, just to stay at home.” She also stated how “Depression is widespread. The rate of suicide for girls has gone up a lot in the last two years. It is tragic.”
Image Credits: Google Images
Feature Image designed by Saudamini Seth
Sources: India Today, BBC, Hindustan Times
Find the blogger: @chirali_08
This post is tagged under: Afghan women, Afghan women education, Afghan women protest, Afghan women right, Afghan women taliban, Afghan women un appeal, #AfghanGirlsVoices, Taliban government, Taliban women education, afghanistan, taliban, education
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