HRW Criticizes Global Community for Failing to Act on Taliban’s Ban on Girls’ Education

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The international rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has criticized the international community for failing to take “meaningful action” to reverse the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education.

In a statement on Tuesday, September 17, marking the third year of the Taliban’s ban on secondary education for girls, HRW noted that while the issue has sparked global discussion, no action has been taken to reverse the ban.

The rights group called on the international community to increase pressure on the Taliban to lift the ban immediately and reopen schools for girls.

It also urged donor countries to support communities advocating for girls’ right to education and to fund online and underground education initiatives led by women in Afghanistan.

“Secondary school is an important time of growth and learning for children. The Taliban’s discriminatory ban is depriving at least 1.4 million girls of their right to education,” HRW stated.

“This has taken a psychological and emotional toll on Afghan girls, extinguishing their hopes,’ it added.

The rights group says that the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education has a negative impact on Afghan lives and carries severe societal, developmental, and economic consequences for Afghanistan’s future.

“With the Taliban’s ban attacking girls’ education, Afghanistan’s future will suffer from a serious lack of doctors, nurses, female teachers, and educated women professionals from various walks of life.”

“This will further undermine women’s role in Afghan society and lead to an unequal, segregated, and impoverished society without women’s meaningful contributions.”

Following their return to power in August 2021, the Taliban gradually restricted the fundamental rights of women and girls, starting with a ban on attending secondary schools.

The ban was later extended to universities, employment, parks, gyms, travel, and more. Recently, the regime has further silenced women’s voices by prohibiting speaking and reading aloud outside their homes and has mandated full-body covering, including the face, among other restrictions.

Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where girls and women are strictly barred from secondary and higher education.

According to UNICEF, nearly 1.5 million girls have been deliberately denied access to secondary education since the Taliban’s takeover of the country, with an additional 38,000 girls affected this year.

UN experts, human rights groups, and activists all assert that the Taliban’s oppression of women and girls constitutes a system of apartheid, intentionally designed to subjugate them solely based on their gender.

Despite substantial calls and pressure from the majority of the world, including Islamic countries and organizations, for the Taliban to uphold the fundamental rights of women and girls, the fundamentalist regime claims that their policies and practices are grounded in Islamic Sharia law and Afghan traditions.