New York (ots/PRNewswire) – The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, ECW CEO Yasmine Sherif and ECW Global Champion Somaya Faruqi mark the 1,000th day of the ban on girls’ education in Afghanistan
Today, people around the world commemorate a tragic milestone for human rights, children’s rights and girls’ rights: 1,000 days since girls were banned from secondary school in Afghanistan. To commemorate and reflect on this unacceptable milestone, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the United Nations’ global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, is launching the second phase of its compelling #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign.
The campaign features inspirational artwork, poems, cartoons and more from some of the world’s leading artists, as well as powerful, moving quotes from Afghan girls who have been denied the right to an education but who hold on to hope that their right will be restored.
The first phase of the #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign was launched by UN Special Representative for Global Education, The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, ECW Executive Director Yasmine Sherif, and ECW Global Champion Somaya Faruqi, former captain of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team, in August 2023. Since its launch, the campaign has received attention and support from millions of people around the world.
This second phase has already attracted other leaders and prominent supporters, including bestselling authors Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner) and Christina Lamb (I Am Malala); ECW Global Champion and Al-Jazeera TV host Folly Bah Thibault; Richard Bennett, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan; Mick Sheldrick, co-founder of Global Citizen; Pashtana Durrani, winner of the 2023 Global Citizen Prize and founder of LEARN Afghanistan; and many others, including several leading Afghan women activists.
“The world must stand behind Afghan girls. Denying them the right to a quality education is an abomination and a violation of the UN Charter, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and fundamental human rights. Through the global #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign, people around the world can speak up for human rights and gender justice by sharing these stories of courage, hope and resilience,” said The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, UN Special Representative for Global Education and Chair of the ECW High-Level Steering Group.
“As a global community, we must re-intensify our global efforts to ensure that every adolescent girl can exercise her right to education. Gender discrimination is unacceptable and will only harm an already war-torn Afghanistan and its suffering people. Girls’ right to education is a fundamental right enshrined in international human rights law. For the people of Afghanistan – men, women, girls and boys – education for adolescent girls is critical to rebuilding Afghanistan and ensuring that every Afghan enjoys the universal right to education,” said Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of ECW.
“Girls in Afghanistan are strong and resilient, and they refuse to give up on their hopes and dreams. A thousand days without access to education is a great injustice for Afghan girls. This must stop,” said ECW Global Champion Somaya Faruqi.
According to UNESCO, about 80% of Afghan girls and young women of school age do not attend school and nearly 30% of girls in Afghanistan have never completed primary school.
The ban on secondary and higher education for girls has reversed decades of educational and development gains. Between 2001 and 2018, enrollment at all levels of education increased tenfold, from 1 million in 2001 to 10 million in 2018. As of August 2021, 4 in 10 primary school students were girls. These leaps have been accompanied by social and economic growth and other improvements that have benefited large segments of Afghan society.
The change in leadership sent seismic waves through all sectors of the Afghan economy and society. Today, 23.7 million people – more than half the population – are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, 6.3 million are displaced, and basic human rights are at risk. Girls and boys are at high risk of gender-based violence, child labor, early marriage and other human rights violations. Despite the urgent need for humanitarian assistance totaling USD 3 billion, only USD 221 million has been received so far, according to UNOCHA.
Since ECW launched its investments in Afghanistan in 2017, the Fund has invested $88.8 million, reaching more than 230,000 children with high-quality, holistic educational support. ECW’s multi-year investments focus on community-based learning, reaching girls and boys through a variety of activities, such as providing teaching and learning materials, training teachers, and mental health and psychosocial support.
Join the #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign Quotes from prominent supporters of the campaign can be found here.
The social media kit and visual elements of the campaign can be found here.
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Inquiries & Contact:
Greg Benchwick,
gbenchwick@unicef.org
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