HRW: Donors must convince Taliban to respect women

Kabul, 21 Mar The international organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned Monday that the reopening of schools this week in Afghanistan for girls is not enough to ensure quality education, and called on donors to persuade the Taliban to respect women's rights. “Access to education is much more than if the door in front of the school is open (...) Donors must find ways to induce the Taliban to respect girls' and women's rights to education,” HRW Deputy Director for Women's Rights Heather Barr explained today in a statement, accompanying the publication of the report 'Afghanistan: Supporting Girls' Education. In the document, the organization denounced the “numerous obstacles” Afghan girls face in their daily lives, in addition to “Taliban surveillance and intimidation in schools, or lack of teachers”, and called on international donors not to provide aid in “areas where authorities prevent women and women girls attend school”. Instead, HRW recommended that donors, the main source of funding for the Afghan education system, examine the situation of schools and provinces one by one, and support only those where female students have already been accepted into classes. He also called for supporting activists and communities fighting for the right of all to education, focusing on community education classes, which cater to both genders equally. This request comes after the Taliban Government announced the reopening of schools in Afghanistan on Wednesday after the winter break, a return to school in which female students, excluded from secondary education since the Islamists' coming to power last August, will also be part of, although in schools other than those of the boys. A break criticized by HRW, which argued that since August education has been “a collection of fragmented and sometimes incoherent policies” that deprived women “of any access” to it” or created “an environment in which even if they are allowed to study, it is impossible for them to do so.” Although female pupils' access to primary school has always been allowed, the same was not the case with secondary and higher education. In fact, last month Islamists already took a first step towards the integration of women into the education system with the reopening of universities, also allowing access to female students, albeit at different times than for men. CHIEF lk-hbc/mt/jac