Afghanistan: Ban on secondary education for girls marks four long years

This article is published in association with United Nations.

For millions of girls in Afghanistan, it has been four long years since the ban on secondary education came into force, one of many rights abuses rolled out by the de facto authorities since they regained control of Kabul.

At the time of the ban, girls like Fatima Amiri were the target of violent extremists determined to drive them away from school and learning.

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She was 17 when a suicide bomber blew himself up in her classroom in the capital in 2022, killing more than 50 of her friends and leaving her with lifechanging injuries.

Today, living outside the country, she’s an education advocate for Afghan girls who are desperate for their schools to reopen. It’s a fundamental right that has been taken from them, Ms. Amiri insists.

“They are crying, they are sending me many messages and saying that we want the right [to] education,” she says. “They are in a very bad situation… the only thing they had was education, but right now they do not have it.”

Most Afghans oppose ban 

According to UN Women, more than nine in 10 people in Afghanistan support girls’ secondary education.

And while the country is still reeling from the recent earthquake disaster – a task made even more difficult by the reinforced Taliban veto on female aid workers – UN agencies and partners on Tuesday reiterated their appeal for every Afghan girl to be allowed to go to school.

Many UN agencies and partners including Education Cannot Wait (ECW) has condemned the ongoing ban and urged the global community to unite in support of education for all girls in Afghanistan.

Today, more than 2.2 million Afghan girls are banned from attending school beyond primary school, latest UN data shows. And in total, up to seven million children are not in class because to the ban and other constraints.

Ms. Amiri shared her testimony at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, where she spoke to UN News’s Daniel Johnson. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Fatima Amiri:I’m just an example of many girls and women in Afghanistan who have been denied justice. I’m someone who has felt every kind of pain that girls in my country experience…The only thing that I can is their voice, to speak with the world and to transfer their message to other people so that they can help them.

UN News: The damaging impact on girls and women’s rights linked to the return of the Taliban has been widely condemned. But you’ve lived through this; can you describe what it means for your friends still in Afghanistan?

UNTV Geneva

“We need actions, support for underground schools, protections for those fighting for the right to learn,” insists Fatima Amiri.

Fatima Amiri: It has been four years that people in Afghanistan are having these problems, that schools are closed, universities are closed and the situation for women. The thing is, we are just speaking but there’s no action. It has been four years! There are no changes in Afghanistan every day; still schools are closed, still universities are closed, still a woman cannot go outside alone. So, speaking is not enough; we speak a lot, it’s time to do something, we need actions.

UN News:Andthat is why you have come to the UN Human Rights Council here in Geneva where countries heard your powerful story. You said that you were speaking for everybody else; you didn’t tell them that you’d lost an eye and were scarred in that terror attack on your school…

Fatima Amiri: It’s true that I lost my eye, my ear. But there’s lots of other girls who they lost their vision too; when you cannot study, when you do not have your basic rights, it means you’re blind. You cannot see anything when you’re all day in home, without school, without education.

I’m in touch with lots of girls in Afghanistan…Some of them are saying that we were studying and it was our hope that we will create our future and make our future better and we will make our country a better place for us. But now we do not have our basic rights. They are in depression, they are lost…They are asking for help. I’m telling my story so that people can understand.

UN News: When the terror attack happened, you were preparing for a university entrance exam to study computer science. Despite your serious injuries you took the exam…

Fatima Amiri: I did my exam after being injured in the attack, but I had lost my eye and my ear and it was really hard to pass that exam in that situation. I was in the hospital but I passed that exam very well, and I was able to enter university; but they closed it and I couldn’t continue my education. So, I’m still fighting for my dream, for my right to education.

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UN News: What do want the Human Rights Council’s 47 Member States to do? How can they help?

Fatima Amiri: They should make opportunities for them. If you cannot open my school, at least give me an opportunity, give me a scholarship! These countries that are here, they can make opportunities for online learning so that they can continue their education or get work. We need options. That’s the message that most girls in Afghanistan wanted me to transfer.

UN News: You’ve spoken about how girls continue to learn “in secret, in the dark, online, through whispers, through books that are like precious treasures”. What else can you tell us?

Fatima Amiri: The situation is completely hard right now, as we all know, but girls in Afghanistan are unstoppable. They’re trying more and more every day. I’m in contact with a lot of them, I’m teaching them English, they are so motivated! It’s true that, they do not have the right to study and that the internet connection is not good, but they are still trying to study, to learn something new.

Not all of them have access to online courses or maybe online universities or schools; there’s very few of those opportunities. But they’re trying to continue their education, they are studying at home with the books they had before, they’re trying to be in contact with other people with knowledge, to learn from them. So, they’re just trying, they’re unstoppable.