Most teenage girls now have no access to classrooms and thousands of women have been pushed out of the workforce
\nUNITED NATIONS
\nAfter pleading with world leaders at the United Nations to protect the education and rights of women in Afghanistan a year after the Taliban took over, Somaya Faruqi, former captain of the Afghan girls robotics team, broke down in tears backstage. \u201cI was in classroom last year, but this year girls are not in classroom. Classrooms are empty, and they are at their homes. So it was too hard to control myself, control my feelings,\u201d Faruqi, 20, told Reuters.
\nFaruqi, who now attends the Missouri University of Science and Technology, left Afghanistan in August last year, when the Taliban seized power and the United States and allies withdrew forces after a 20-year war.
\nSpeaking at the United Nations in New York this week as world leaders gather for the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly, she urged them to unite and demand the reopening of girls\u2019 schools and protection of their rights.
\n\u201cThis week, you are all here to propose solutions to transform education to all, but you must not forget those who [are] left behind, those who are not lucky enough to be at school at all,\u201d said Faruqi.
\n\u201cShow your solidarity with me and millions of Afghan girls.\u201d
\nNobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by a Taliban gunman in Pakistan as she left school in 2012, chided leaders for lack of action.
\n\u201cMost of you know what exactly needs to be done. You must not make small, stingy and short-term pledges, but commit to uphold the right to complete education and close the funding gap once and for all,\u201d Yousafzai said on Monday. Last year, she pleaded with the world not to compromise on the protection of Afghan women\u2019s rights following the Taliban takeover.
\n\u2018Lift all restrictions\u2019
\nThe Taliban have said women should not leave the home without a male relative and must cover their faces, though some women in urban centers ignore the rule.
\nIn March, the Taliban made a U-turn on a promise to open girls\u2019 high schools. Most teenage girls now have no access to classrooms and thousands of women have been pushed out of the workforce because of tighter restrictions and Afghanistan\u2019s economic crisis, international development agencies said.
\nThe Taliban say they respect women\u2019s rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law and that since March they have been working on a way of opening girls\u2019 high schools.
\nAt the Transforming Education Summit on Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the Taliban to \u201clift all restrictions on girls\u2019 access to secondary education immediately.\u201d
\n\u201cGirls\u2019 education is among the most important steps to deliver peace, security and sustainable development, everywhere,\u201d said Guterres.
\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday opened the Alliance for Afghan Women\u2019s Economic Resilience, a partnership between the State Department and Boston University aimed at advancing Afghan women\u2019s entrepreneurship and educational opportunities and expanding workplace opportunities, both in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
\n\u201cWomen, no matter where they live, should have equal rights in every facet of their lives,\u201d Blinken said.
\n\u201cThis should be, in the year 2022, self-evident to everyone on this planet. But of course, it\u2019s not, and we have to fight for it. We have to struggle for it every single day,\u201d Blinken added.
\nRina Amiri, US Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls and Human Rights, said the initiative would face a lot of challenges. Instability, a lack of security and financial chaos will weigh on any attempts to support women\u2019s re-entry into Afghan society.
\n\u201cWhat we want to show is that there\u2019s resilience,\u201d she said.
\nFereshteh Forough, CEO of Code to Inspire, the first coding school for women and girls in Afghanistan, said at the alliance\u2019s event that she had to close her school and move to online learning after the Taliban took over.
\nShe broke down in tears as she said that 80% of the students were back to school remotely, and that as of Monday, the school was able to get a permit from the Taliban to reopen conditionally.
\n\u201cWe were able to get 300 girls to get an entrance exam and come to our graphic design school. It\u2019s just unbelievable how difficult it\u2019s been this year,\u201d she said, in tears.
\n\u201cThe text messages I received from the girls, it was heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most teenage girls now have no access to classrooms and thousands of women have been pushed out of the workforce UNITED NATIONS After pleading with world leaders at the United Nations to protect the education and rights of women in Afghanistan a year after the Taliban took over, Somaya Faruqi, former captain of the Afghan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284864,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-284838","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n