The Taliban will announce a new framework that allows girls to attend school in Afghanistan “soon,” a senior United Nations official said.
“The de facto minister of education told us that they are working on a framework, which they will announce soon, that will allow all girls to go to secondary school, and we are expecting that to happen very soon,” UNICEF deputy executive director Omar Abdi said at the United Nations in New York on Friday.
It has been a few weeks now since the Taliban have been saying that they will allow girls to return to school as soon as possible.
The group permitted girls to attend primary school from the start, but have maintained that neither the girls nor their female teachers could return to secondary school yet. Taliban officials have said that can happen only once the girls’ security and strict gender segregation can be ensured under the group’s restrictive interpretation of sharia law.
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Abdi noted that, as he spoke, “millions of girls of secondary school age are missing out on education for the 27th consecutive day.”He said that the UN has urged the Taliban authorities “not to wait” on educating girls.
He further mentioned that he had visited Afghanistan the week before and met with Taliban authorities. “In all my meetings, the education of girls was the first issue that I raised.”
He said he had received “affirmations” of the Taliban’s commitments to allow girls to attend primary school.
As for secondary school, he said they were allowed “only in five provinces.” However, he ensured that the UN is pushing for the right to be implemented throughout the country.
Earlier in September, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said girls in Afghanistan will return to school “as soon as possible”, however, he added that “a safe learning environment” needed to be created.
“Ministry of education is working hard to lay the groundwork for the education of high school girls,” Mujahid announced while adding that a new “framework” is being worked upon.
Source: Thanks WIONews.com