Girls who receive an education are less likely to marry at a younger age, and more likely to lead healthy and productive lives. They can earn higher incomes; participate in the crucial decisions that affect them; and build better futures for themselves and their families.
Girls education strengthens economies and reduces inequality. While the grim picture of girls’ education in Afghanistan manifest a bitter reality. Afghanistan is the only country in the world that curbs girls’ education.
Before the takeover of Taliban’s in Afghanistan, 3.7 million children were out of school and most of them were girls. Education in Afghanistan is critical to the protection of human rights, especially for girls. Due to the school shut down, families in crisis have had to make “negative choices” which has led to an increase in child marriages, child labor, and domestic violence.
The current status of education in Afghanistan is going through hard days, especially for girls. In the current times, the education system has been bit hard and the right to education for Afghan children and youth is at stake. Since March 23 2022, 1.1 million secondary girls have been prevented from attending secondary school until further notice. Over the past two decades, Afghan education activists worked to rebuild their country’s education system, helping millions more girls and women go to school.
Now under Taliban rule that progress is under threat. Today, Afghanistan is the only country in the world that forbids half of its population from going to school. The structure of education in Afghanistan has been destroyed by years of consistent conflict and political instability.
Unfortunately, young girls seem to suffer a great deal as a result, of receiving a lower quality of education or being out of school altogether. As UNICEF has recently reported that approximately 3.7 million children are out of school and 60 percent of those children are females. That is 1 in every 3 girls attending school every day, which is the steepest drop in school attendance in 16 years.
UNICEF stated that the ongoing conflict deeply ingrained poverty and discrimination against girls have pushed the rate of out-of-school children up for the first time since 2002 levels. A lack of female teachers specifically in rural areas may be a reason for the low enrollment of girls.
In half of all Afghan provinces, less than 20 percent of all teachers are female. To be adolescent girls to be taught by a male teacher. The level of literacy among boys is much higher at 66 percent while the literacy rate of young girls is just 37 percent. The Afghanistan government has not provided as many schools for girls as it has for boys at the primary and secondary levels. Children who come from low-income homes are required to work at school age.
According to Human Rights Watch, at least 25 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 14 work for a living and as a result, education ten times becomes burden girls typically make money by wearing or tailoring, but some do other small jobs like selling items on the street.
The Taliban, a fundamentalist Islamic political movement, that started a war within the country are present in over 40 percent of the districts. The teachers in institutes find it difficult to give quality education with a lack of supplies and resources, and low salaries are being given to the staff.
The job pays about USD 100 per month and many teachers are hired with inadequate levels of training and education. It is time for the world to speak for the rights of women and give them their fundamental right to gain an education.