UN criticizes ban on women’s education in Afghanistan

KABUL: The UN Secretary-General's Special Adviser for the Transforming Education Summit, Leonardo Garnier, has criticized the ban on women’s education in Afghanistan.

TOLO News is an Afghan news channel broadcasting from Kabul.

Garnier in a press conference said the UN and the international community's pressure on Taliban is "critical" owing to the country's restrictions on girls' education. He noted that currently, Afghanistan is the most extreme case of exclusion of girls. He said: “I think that Afghanistan is the most extreme case of exclusion of girls. I think the pressure from the international community and from the UN system is critical here.”

Meanwhile, assistant director general for education at UNESCO, Stefania Giannini, said that the UN is pursuing the issue of women's education in Afghanistan and will not stop its efforts in this regard. Giannini noted: “The system officially doesn’t allow them to go to school ... UNESCO and the UN assistance UNICEF were in the class working in some 20 provinces this year and reaching out to some 40 thousand learners, 60 percent of them are girls.”

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid in reaction to the UN official's remarks, said the pressure strategy was not the solution to the nation's current challenges. "Those issues that are permitted by Sharia, we want to have a good interaction in that regard, we want to have an answer for the issues they criticize, and that the policy of pressure and coercion do not lead to results,” Mujahid said.

This comes as more than 680 days have passed since the closure of schools for girls above the sixth grade in the country, which sparked both national and foreign reactions. (ANI)

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