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UNICEF has called on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to lift their ban on girls’ secondary education as the new school year begins.
The UN children’s agency said the ban deprives another 400,000 girls of their schooling this term, bringing the total since its introduction to 2.2 million.
Afghanistan is the only country in the world that bans female secondary and higher education, with the Taliban saying women’s access to education is contrary to its interpretation of sharia law.
Unicef executive director Catherine Russell said: “For over three years, the rights of girls in Afghanistan have been violated. All girls must be allowed to return to school now.
“If these capable, bright young girls continue to be denied an education, then the repercussions will last for generations.”
She added that the decline in female doctors and midwives will leave women and girls without crucial medical care, leading to rises in the country’s already high rates of death in childbirth and stillbirths.
