On 2nd anniversary of U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, girls’ rights remain under siege

United Nations – After two years of tried talks with the Taliban geared toward lifting its bans on secondary and college training and work for girls in Afghanistan, the U.N. is proposing a plan to strain Afghanistan and incentivize the Taliban to reverse course.

Over 2.5 million women and younger girls are denied secondary education, a quantity that can enhance to three million in a couple of months.

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the U.N.’s envoy for world training, introduced a five-point plan on Tuesday that features bringing the difficulty to the eye of the Worldwide Prison Court docket.

Brown stated that he has submitted a authorized opinion to ICC prosecutor Karim Khan asking him to open an investigation into the denial of training to ladies. Brown additionally requested the court docket to think about the Taliban’s repression of girls’s rights to training and employment as a criminal offense towards humanity.

Deena Rahimi, a twelfth-grade student, reads a book at her residence in Kabul on March 21, 2023. Afghanistan's schools reopened in March, but hundreds of thousands of girls remain barred from attending class. — Deena Rahimi, a twelfth-grade scholar, reads a e book at her residence in Kabul on March 21, 2023. Afghanistan’s colleges reopened in March, however tons of of hundreds of women stay barred from attending class.

AHMAD SAHEL ARMAN/AFP through Getty Photos

“The denial of training to Afghan women and the restrictions on employment of Afghan girls is gender discrimination, which ought to depend as a criminal offense towards humanity and must be prosecuted by the Worldwide Prison Court docket,” Brown stated.

The ICC’s investigation into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s alleged war crimes has set a precedent for circumstances to be introduced earlier than the court docket on behalf of kids, Brown argued.

“The worldwide group should present that training can get by means of to the folks of Afghanistan regardless of the Afghan authorities’s bans, and thus, we are going to sponsor and fund web studying,” Brown stated, including, “We are going to assist underground colleges, in addition to assist training for ladies who’re compelled to go away Afghanistan and want our assist to go to high school.”

The five-point plan consists of the mobilization of Education Cannot Wait, a U.N. emergency training fund, which on Tuesday launched a campaign known as “Afghan Ladies’ Voices,” in collaboration with Somaya Faruqi, former captain of the Afghan Ladies’ Robotic Crew.

Male students arrive at Balkh University after the universities were reopened in Mazar-i-Sharif on March 6, 2023. — Male college students arrive at Balkh College after the colleges have been reopened in Mazar-i-Sharif on March 6, 2023.

ATIF ARYAN/AFP through Getty Photos

The plan additionally asks for visits by delegations from Muslim-majority international locations to Kandahar, and to supply the Taliban-led authorities funding to finance women’ return to high school, which might match funding offered between 2011 and 2021 so long as women’ rights can be upheld and the training wouldn’t be indoctrination.

“Now we have to consider the security of women,” Brown stated, including that there’s a cut up amongst Taliban management about lifting the bans and that the U.N. has detected “some chance of progress.”

“However till we will persuade not simply the federal government itself, however the clerics, that one thing should change, we are going to nonetheless have this horrible scenario the place that is the worst instance of the abuse of human rights towards women and girls all over the world.”