(Photo by United Nations Photo via Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Portions of the included interview have been edited for clarity and brevity.
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Currently, upwards of 130 million girls worldwide are denied an education— a vital right that should be accessible to all. Not only does education promote gender equality and limit harmful practices like child marriage, but it advances growth in economies and encourages a more peaceful, accepting world. Unfortunately, several violations of this fundamental right are occurring in Afghanistan.
The Taliban Takeover in Afghanistan
Afghanistan has been making consistent progress in advancing a number of women’s rights. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the number of girls attending primary school increased from almost zero in 2001 to 2.5 million in 2018. Likewise, from 2001 to 2021, the number of women in higher education grew from 5,000 to over 100,000.
However, many advances in women’s educational rights halted when the Taliban took control in 2021. Amidst the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban entered the capital resulting in a governmental collapse. This takeover caused a number of issues, including a humanitarian crisis, economic uncertainty caused by enforced sanctions and inflation, and growing human rights violations like mass executions.
The regime has further instituted a gender apartheid directed towards women and girls. According to Amnesty International, gender apartheid is “institutionalized regimes of systematic oppression and domination imposed on the grounds of gender.” The government in Afghanistan currently bans women from appearing in public without a male chaperone, participating in sports, visiting public parks, and attending school. Afghanistan is also currently the only country in the world that bans girls and women over the age of 11 years old from schooling.
To learn about the importance of education and its impacts, I interviewed Lauryn Oates, the Executive Director of Right To Learn Afghanistan.
Could you describe your organization and the work you do to promote education in Afghanistan?
Lauryn Oates (LO): For the past 26 years, our organization has been advancing women’s empowerment across various sectors, including education, healthcare, advocacy, and economic development. Through years of practical experience and global research, we consistently found that education — particularly the education of women and girls — is a key factor in creating profound and lasting benefits for present and future generations.
Right to Learn Afghanistan has been supporting Afghan women’s and girls’ education since 1998. As there have been so many changes in Afghanistan and around the world in the past 26 years, we have also evolved and adapted new ways to offer our support. When the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 2021, we made adjustments to our program delivery, including expanding our learning opportunities to Afghan women, girls, and boys around the world.
We recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Darakht-e Danesh Library, an online collection of over 8,000 resources covering 127 subjects. The resources cater to people of all ages and are available in English and seven Afghan languages. In the past 30 days, the library had over 396,000 views. We also have Darakht-e Danesh Courses, an asynchronous course platform that allows learners to take full courses at their own pace.
After the Fall of Kabul in 2021, we launched the Darakht-e Danesh Classroom, our online high school for Afghan students. The students attend their class at a scheduled time and a teacher instructs them through video. DD Classroom offers a combined Afghan and Canadian curriculum, and upon completion of Grade 12, graduates will receive an internationally recognized high school diploma.
Can you speak to the impact of the 2021 Taliban takeover on women’s and girls’ education?
LO: The Taliban has issued more than 70 mandates that control the rights, movement, and freedom of women and girls. These mandates have banned girls above 12 years from pursuing their secondary education, stopped women from going to university, prevented women from working or going outside without a male chaperone, and even closed down women-owned businesses.
The international community has referred to Afghanistan as the worst place in the world to be a woman. At the recent United Nations General Assembly, famous actress Meryl Streep commented that even a cat has more freedom than a woman in Afghanistan.
An estimate of between 1.5-2.5 million women and girls are deprived of an education and I think the real numbers are significantly more than that. There are generations of Afghan women and girls who are not receiving an education right now. Can you imagine what that would do for their future and the future of Afghanistan?
Despite education being a human right, Afghanistan is currently restricting girls’ education beyond the primary level. Can you discuss the importance of education, especially as it concerns young girls?
LO: Education has a far-reaching impact. Countless studies have shown how education impacts maternal and child health, health outcomes, reduced poverty, and other areas of a country’s growth and development.
It is painful to imagine that Afghanistan is home to four million child brides. When a child is married off, they usually won’t be sent to school by their husbands. They become victims of sexual abuse and violence. They get pregnant at such a young age, facing subsequent health risks. Data shows that if all girls complete secondary school, the level of child marriage would fall by 66%, and if all of them continue to higher education, this number would drop by 80%.
Of course, losing their empowerment and agency affects their mental health. Afghanistan is the only country in the world where the rate of suicide among women is higher than men. By preventing them from pursuing an education, working, and speaking with their friends, they feel their lives have no purpose, with no hope for their future.
In recent interviews, you mention that classifying gender apartheid as a crime can be a step in reinstating education for women and girls. Could you share additional potential actions, including those at the international, national, or individual level?
LO: First, we need to make the Taliban accountable for what they are doing. During the United Nations General Assembly, we witnessed a bold and historic move from the governments of Canada, Australia, Germany, and the Netherlands, where the four countries took the first step to pursue adjudication of violations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). It is also among the first concrete actions to hold the Taliban criminally responsible for their violations of women’s human rights in Afghanistan, which constitute gender apartheid.
We certainly welcome this important, long-awaited development, and we are grateful that Canada was among those who stepped up to make this move. Afghan women’s rights continue to be systematically violated, with the situation rapidly worsening. Activating the CEDAW adjudication process, and we hope, too, other international justice mechanisms, can start to put an end to the impunity the Taliban have enjoyed to date.
The joint statement is the first step to formally notify the state party to cease violations, followed by a required attempt to negotiate with the state party. Should these not yield results, subsequent steps will include holding a hearing against Afghanistan for non-compliance with CEDAW at the International Court of Justice in the Hague.
CEDAW adjudication is one of several international justice mechanisms that advocates have recommended. Advocates are also calling for the codification of gender apartheid, in particular, through its inclusion as a crime against humanity in the new Convention on Crimes Against Humanity, a draft of which will next be considered in October and November 2024, when the Sixth Committee, responsible for legal matters at the UN, will convene.
Is there anything you want to touch on that I did not ask?
LO: I think it is important to demonstrate the urgency of the situation. Thousands of women and girls are dying every year in Afghanistan, whether it is because of high-risk childbirth, abuse, suicide, or the increasing cases of femicide. Billions of hours of learning have been lost and all these numbers keep rising.
We want the world to know all of this so that they, too, can take action. Anyone can raise awareness, amplify the voices of Afghan women and girls, and let them know that they are not forgotten. I think it is very difficult just to sit back and watch when you know what is happening on the ground.
Once people are aware, there are many ways to help. There are a lot of organizations out there you can support, including us at Right to Learn Afghanistan, where you can help re-open school doors for Afghan girls and women. For those who want to help advocate, we have a page on our website dedicated to naming and ending gender apartheid and it lists several actions you can take to be a part of this advocacy and give back the rights of Afghan women and girls.
Gender apartheid and its resultant lack of education cannot continue to exist in Afghanistan. As highlighted by Lauryn Oates, education is a fundamental human right that reaps great benefits, including a reduction in the level of child marriages imposed on girls. It is thus essential that Afghanistan reenacts the right to education immediately to create a healthier and more equitable future for all women and girls.
Edited by Qiu Guan
