“They closed our schools, and everyone remained silent. They closed our universities, and everyone remained silent. Now they’ve come for our private courses as well,” shouted a female protestor in a video circulating on Twitter, her voice rising in outrage, as she denounced the Taliban for banning female education and expressed her frustration with the world for failing to take meaningful steps to combat the injustice.
This past January 24th, 2023, marked International Day of Education worldwide, with the driving theme behind this year’s iteration bringing into focus the education of Afghan women and girls. UNESCO took a hard stance in condemning the Taliban’s ban on education for women and girls in the country, reiterating that “No country in the world should bar women and girls from receiving an education. Education is a universal human right that must be respected. The international community has the responsibility to ensure that the rights of Afghan girls and women are restored without delay. The war against women must stop.” A call has been issued with concern for the immediate and non-negotiable access to education and subsequent return to school for all girls and young women in Afghanistan.
Despite initially claiming that the ban on girls’ education would be “not permanent,” the Taliban went back on its word by extending the ban to include universities and colleges nationwide — a reneging on its promise. And it has been over 500 days since the Taliban banned girls from going to school, and over 50 days since it banned women from going to university, with no end date in sight for the so-called temporary ban.
The decisions by the de-facto authorities in Afghanistan may result in the undoing of the progress made by and in the country over the past 20 years. From 2001 to 2021, Afghanistan saw an impressive tenfold rise in student enrolment at all education levels, from around 1 million to around 10 million. During this period, the number of girls in primary school surged from almost zero to 2.5 million, and that of women in higher education — from 5,000 to over 100,000, a spectacular 20-fold rise. This remarkable growth led to a dramatic boost in literacy rates for women and girls, with the percentage of those who could read and write almost doubling, soaring from 17% in 2001 to nearly 30% for all age groups combined. Unfortunately, all these achievements may be lost if the authorities continue not to make the right decisions.
As of January 2023, it is estimated that a staggering 2.5 million or 80% of Afghan school-aged girls and young women are out of school, 1.2 million of whom have been denied access to secondary schools and universities following the decisions of the de-facto authorities. The dire situation called for an urgent response, and since the Taliban Offensive in August 2021, UNESCO has been working on adapting its interventions to support the continuity of education in these challenging circumstances.
UNESCO has been working on a series of alternative solutions to raising public awareness of the right to education for youth and adults. It has launched an education rights advocacy campaign that has reached over 20 million Afghans, with a particular focus on adolescent girls and women. Taking its efforts further, it has also partnered with NGOs to start a community-based literacy campaign that has been providing content and funding, having directly impacted 25,000 young people and adults in rural areas, particularly mostly adolescent girls above the age of 15 and women.
Furthermore, to ensure that as many girls and women as possible can access distance education, UNESCO has been leveraging existing Afghan media outlets, especially radio stations, which can be accessed in more than two-thirds of the population’s homes. It has been backing these radio stations in the production of conflict-sensitive, humanitarian, health, and educational public interest content, aiming to reach at least six million Afghans, with a specific focus on women and girls. Notably, it has also been providing direct assistance to a women-led station that will broadcast at least 200 hours of girl- and woman-oriented educational content per month to at least eight provinces in 2023. This effort is strongly motivated by the “every day without education hinders progress made since 2001” — an alarming reality that UNESCO is determined to address.
Likewise, the international education community has since stepped up to ensure that Afghan women and girls have access to learning opportunities. Through technology, organizations like FutureLearn have managed to make contact with Afghan women and girls and provide them with free online qualifications, enabling them to stay in contact and continue learning, despite continuous power cuts. German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has also been contributing to this cause with a scholarship expected to help 5,000 women by 2027. All these efforts make it clear that the global community has not forgotten the plight of these Afghan women and girls and is determined to offer them a lifeline and a chance to reopen opportunities through education.
With that being said, nothing can replace the classroom, a place for social integration where people learn to live together, and where students and teachers take part in the educational process. In underscoring the significance of the classroom, UNESCO and its Member States are therefore committed to keeping restoring the right to education for Afghan girls and women at the forefront of the international agenda.
The 2023 International Day of Education will hold a special place in history as a constant reminder for all for years to come; On the one hand, educators must stay ahead of the curve, leveraging the power of technology to foster innovation, collaboration, and actions for sustainable development; on the other hand, everyone must keep rallying around education in the face of injustice, translating global commitments and initiatives into tangible action.
Furthermore, the fact that it is online material that keeps education alive in these challenging times has driven home the relevance of the 2023 International Women’s Day’s theme “DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality.” It is essential that the rights and civic engagement of women and girls in digital spaces be safeguarded as doing so enables them to access a whole host of educational and, by extension, economic opportunities that are otherwise inaccessible to them in the physical world. Additionally, their participation in the digital spaces helps to promote gender equality and social justice, allowing them to make their voices heard and be respected and ultimately leading to a more equitable and inclusive society.
And the clip of the female protestor denouncing the Taliban for banning female education on Twitter is a powerful reminder of that. On International Women’s Day, let’s stand together and raise our voices to the cause of protecting the right to education, a fundamental human right that should never be denied, in solidarity with women and girls in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, the only country on Earth where female education is prohibited.
Suffice it to say, a more equitable and inclusive education brings about a more equitable and inclusive society. By ensuring that all people, regardless of their backgrounds, receive an equitable and inclusive education, we can create an environment where everyone is respected and has access to the same employment and many other opportunities, which leads to a more equitable and inclusive society. This is in line with the mission of the Equitable Education Fund (EEF) Thailand, which is to reduce education and employment inequality through research, collaboration, and support for children, youth, and adults in need.
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