The United Nations global fund for education in emergencies & protracted crises – Education Cannot Wait (ECW), has launched the #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign after two years of seized control in Afghanistan by de facto Taliban authorities. Somaya Faruqi (former captain of the Afghan Girls Robotic Team & ECW Global Champion) has collaborated with the campaign that stands up against the ban on Afghan girls attending school.
According to Somaya Faruqi, the ban on Afghan girls from receiving education has severely damaged their mental health. She added that suicide rates for girls have increased exponentially in the last two years. Somaya believed that urgent actions are needed that result in freedom of female education by next year.
A recent report by United Nations has termed the condition of Afghan women as the ‘worst globally’. The report stated that the women & girls in Afghanistan are facing ‘gender apartheid’ and ‘gender persecution,’ as they face curtailment of their human rights & profound bias under the regime of the de facto Taliban authorities.
Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of ECW’s High-Level Steering Group, stated that the international community should act on the call from Afghan girls and young women to condemn the violation of their rights.
The purpose of the #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign is to elevate the voices of Afghan girls to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit on September 18-19, where world leaders gather at the UN General Assembly in New York.
ECW Executive Director, Yasmine Sherif, said that they would continue to advocate for the resumption of their right to education in Afghanistan. She added that they would work with their partners to deliver learning opportunities to Afghan children through community-based education programmes. Yasmine highlighted that it’s hard to think of anyone more deprived of their rights to education and further left behind than the Afghan girls.