Take the Taliban to The Hague for What They’re Doing to Women
TimeAug 24
UNESCO: Taliban Have Banned 1.4M Girls From Schools
Above: Afghan women beg in the snow, with a child, on the Kabul road south to Pul-e Alam, Afghanistan, on January 17, 2022. Image copyright: Scott Peterson/Contributor/Getty Images News via Getty Images
The Facts
The Taliban government, which took power in Afghanistan in 2021, has since “deliberately deprived” education to at least 1.4M girls, a UN agency has reported.
UNESCO data shows that if those excluded from schools since before the ban are added, the figure swells up to 2.5M — representing 80% of school-age girls.
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
The Taliban are silencing women and girls, confining them to homes, and robbing them of their futures. They have effectively turned women into ghosts within their own country. This systematic erasure threatens to leave a generation of women in darkness.
Establishment-critical narrative
The UN and other global actors have been complicit in erasing Afghan women from crucial discussions about their country's future. They are repeating past mistakes to appease the Taliban and legitimize policies that have virtually erased women from public life.