The war in Ukraine overshadows other ongoing tragedies in Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan. Several international organizations have decided to sound the alarm: «In Afghanistan, we are witnessing the progressive exclusion of women and girls from the public sphere and their institutionalized and systematic oppressiondenounced, in early July in Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet. Since the Taliban took power in August 2021, women and girls in this country have experienced the largest and fastest setback in the exercise of their rights in decades. And the future looks bleak. »
The Human Rights Council echoed it by adopting, on Friday July 8, a resolution condemning the abuses committed against all individuals, including women and girls, in Afghanistan. He urges the Taliban to remove policies and practices that restrict the fundamental freedoms of Afghan women, and to ensure that girls have access to quality education at all levels, equal to that enjoyed by boys.
Massive unemployment, obstacle to women’s employment, restrictions on their dress and freedom of movement, interruption of secondary schooling for 1.2 million girls, exclusion from education and public life: these violations are identical to those already denounced by the UN under the Taliban regime in the 1990s, recalled Richard Bennett, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan.
A generation of adolescent girls deprived of the right to education
In New York, UNICEF director Catherine Russell warned last spring: “The decision of the de facto authorities to postpone the return to class of the girls of the 2e at the 6e year of secondary education is a blow to their future. An entire generation of adolescent girls is denied their right to education and denied the opportunity to learn the skills needed to build a future. »
The UNICEF representative in Afghanistan, Dr. Mohamed Ayoya, assures: “Across Afghanistan, girls are eager to study and fulfill their dreams of becoming doctors, lawyers, pilots, teachers or nurses. Their right to education must be protected and fulfilled. »
“Since the beginning of the year, we have supported 450,000 primary school students by providing them with nutritious midday snackssays to The crossPhilippe Kropf, spokesperson for the World Food Program (WFP) in Kabul. Girls and boys should be able to study, and women should be able to teach and provide care. WFP strives to reach every food-insecure Afghan, and women must be part of this response. » Since the beginning of the year, WFP has assisted more than 19 million people, nearly half the population, including nearly 10 million women and girls and 3 million pregnant and nursing mothers.
For its part, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) supports 45 health structures across the country, medical training establishments, and covers the salaries of some of the local health personnel, including nearly a third (33%) are women.