Afghanistan is the only country to formally ban female students
UNESCO said Tuesday that an estimated 2.4 million Afghan girls remain excluded from secondary education five years after the Taliban took over the country, renewing the agency’s call for the immediate restoration of their right to education.
The Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization said the continued exclusion of women and girls from education amounts to a grave violation of their fundamental rights.
“Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls and women are formally banned from secondary and higher education,” Hoda Jaberian, UNESCO’s program coordinator for education in emergencies, said in a news conference by video.
“Five years is not a temporary interruption in a child’s education,” Jaberian said. “It is clearly almost an entire secondary school cycle.”
“UNESCO continues to call for the immediate and unconditional restoration of girls and women’s right to secondary and higher education,” Jaberian said. “It is not negotiable. It’s a basic human right and we reiterate that there is no substitute for this.”
The 2.4 million estimate counts Afghan girls excluded from secondary school; the formal ban described by UNESCO extends to both secondary and higher education.
Jaberian said five years amounts to nearly an entire secondary school cycle, not a temporary interruption, and UNESCO said there is no substitute for restoring the right to education.