UN Denounces Exclusion of Afghan Girls from School

Image copyright: AFP [via Al Jazeera]

The Facts

  • The UN said on Sunday that it is increasingly concerned about the exclusion of Afghan girls from high school, which it condemned as "shameful," and called for the Taliban to reopen said schools.

  • This comes a year after the Taliban reopened high schools only for boys, a move that Markus Potzel, the acting head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), deemed "profoundly damaging to a generation of girls and to the future of Afghanistan itself."


The Spin

Republican narrative

The current attacks on women's rights in Afghanistan are a direct result of the Biden administration's decision to withdraw from the country. His administration may pontificate about women's rights, but it has no way of enforcing them without troops on the ground.

Democratic narrative

While US involvement in Afghanistan saw significant gains for women's rights, the fact that Afghan security forces collapsed so quickly following its withdrawal indicates that the yields weren't sustainable without indefinite US presence, which itself wasn't sustainable or realistic.


Metaculus Prediction


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