United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the Taliban to lift the ban on girls' access to secondary and higher education on January 24, the International Day of Education. He emphasised the importance of education as a fundamental right and urged all nations to create inclusive and welcoming learning environments for all, as per a report by ANI.
In his context, the official spokesperson of the UN Secretary-General in a release said, "Now is also the time to end all discriminatory laws and practices that hinder access to education. I call on the de facto authorities in Afghanistan in particular to reverse the outrageous and self-defeating ban on access to secondary and higher education for girls." Further, taking to Twitter, Guterres tweeted which read, "Now is the time to end all discriminatory laws and practices that hinder access to education."
Additionally, the theme of this year's International Day of Education reminds us "to invest in people, prioritise education," the official release of the UN added. However, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) decided to dedicate the International Day of Education 2023 to Afghan girls and women, TOLOnews quoted director-general of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay as saying.
As per UNESCO, currently, around 80 per cent of school-aged Afghan girls and young women are out of school under the Taliban rule, as they denied them access to secondary schools and universities. After the Taliban ordered an indefinite ban on university education for Afghan girls, several humanitarian organizations, including Education Cannot Wait (ECW), a United Nations global, billion-dollar fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises called on the Taliban authorities in Kabul to revoke their decision to suspend the university education of Afghan women, as stated in a report by ANI.
Further, the ECW called on the interim Taliban government to allow all girls to return to education, saying that the UN-led humanitarian body stands in solidarity with women in Afghanistan, it added that each one has an inherent human right to education. In this regard, OCHA announced on Tuesday that now 1.1 million Afghan girls are banned from secondary school and more than 100,000 others are banned from universities.
Sharing views about this, US mission charge d'affaires, Karen Decker tweeted, "It is difficult to commemorate the International Day of Education today knowing Afghan women & girls are now denied this right. Education is an investment in Afghanistan's future and must be available to boys and girls."
