The international community must ensure that every girl in Afghanistan has an opportunity to learn, the head of the UN fund for education in emergencies said on Monday – the second anniversary of the Taliban’s edict banning secondary education for girls.
More and more young women and girls are highlighting the importance of access and safety in the digital world. Marking International Girls in ICT Day, on Thursday, UN agencies have issued a call to action to ensure equal access to digital learning opportunities.
Following a U-turn over re-opening girls’ secondary schools in Afghanistan on Wednesday, the UN human rights chief shared her “profound frustration and disappointment” that six months after the Taliban seized power, high school girls have yet to return to the classroom.
Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan last month, they have made some commitments to uphold human rights. However, their subsequent actions have “sadly contradicted” those promises, the UN rights chief told a side event of the General Assembly on Tuesday.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Friday welcomed the news that secondary schools are due to reopen in Afghanistan on Saturday, after months of closure due to COVID-19, but stressed that girls must not be kept from the classroom.
Two senior UN officials on Wednesday, condemned in the strongest terms, a terrorist attack targeting girls and their families outside a high school in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.
From India’s Maharashtra state, super educator Ranjitsinh Disale was awarded a $1 million Global Teacher Prize for his exceptional impact on the lives of hundreds of students, especially girls.
From more than 12,000 teachers from over 140 countries, Mr. Disale was selected for the annual award – sponsored by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, and a UK-based non-profit organization working to improve education access to underprivileged children.
Malala Yousafzai is continuing her fight for girls’ education, rights and empowerment, in her role as the youngest-ever UN Messenger of Peace.
She began speaking out for girls’ education aged 11, and after surviving an assassination attempt by Taliban extremists in her native Pakistan in 2012, she co-founded the Malala Fund along with her father.
This month she is due to begin her studies at Oxford University.
The Pakistani teenager whose courageous defense of girls’ education continues to inspire people worldwide has a message for girls everywhere: your voice matters.
Malala Yousafzai, 19, was speaking on Monday after being appointed a UN Messenger of Peace; the youngest person to receive the distinction.
The Nobel Peace Laureate first came to the world’s attention in October 2012 after being shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for girls’ right to go to school.
Dianne Penn asked Malala about her new role.
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