Rights of Afghan women and children added to agenda of UN General Assembly

The United Nations added the issue of rights of women and children in Afghanistan to the agenda of General Assembly on Monday.

The Associated Press while reporting this noted that Afghanistan two years after the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) banned girls from school beyond sixth grade, Afghanistan is the only country in the world with restrictions on female education. 

The UN children’s agency says more than 1 million girls are affected by the ban, although it estimates 5 million were out of school before the IEA takeover due to a lack of facilities and other reasons.

The ban triggered global condemnation and remains the IEA’s biggest obstacle to gaining recognition as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, AP said.

Roza Otunbayeva, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ special representative for Afghanistan, said one of the obvious impacts of an education ban is the lack of training of aspiring health care professionals.

“Looking into the future and a scenario where nothing changes, where will the female doctors, midwives, gynecologists, or nurses come from?” Otunbayeva said in an email to The Associated Press. “In a strictly gender segregated society, how will Afghan women be able to get the most basic healthcare services if there are no female professionals to treat them?”

This comes as the IEA has said that it is committed to ensuring rights of women and girls according to Sharia law.