(UN) Taliban announces ‘framework’ for girls to return to high school in Afghanistan ‘soon’, a senior UN official said, four weeks after boys were allowed to attend classes, but not girls.
“The actual education minister told us they are working on a framework, which they will announce soon, that will allow all girls to attend secondary school, and we expect that to happen. Very soon,” UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Omar Abdi told the United Nations in New York on Friday.
For weeks, the Taliban have been saying they will allow the girls to return to school as soon as possible.
The fundamentalist Islamic group, which returned to power in Afghanistan in mid-August, allowed girls to attend primary school, but they had not yet made it to secondary school.
The Taliban say this will only be the case when security and strict gender separation are ensured, and they need time to put this in place.
Mr. Abdi lamented that “Millions of girls of secondary school age lose their education on the 27th.NS consecutive day.”
According to him, the United Nations urged the Taliban “not to wait” any longer.
“During all my meetings, girls’ education was the number one topic I mentioned,” said the UN official, who visited Afghanistan last week and spoke to Taliban authorities.
He said he had received assurances about the Taliban’s pledge to allow all girls to go to school.
With regard to secondary schools, he said they are allowed “in only five provinces”, but added that the United Nations is pressing for this right to be extended to the entire country.