Arzoo Gardizi, head of the Free Movement in Exile, has issued a statement describing the continued exclusion of Afghan girls and women from the national university entrance examination (Kankor) as “a clear example of gender apartheid and a blatant violation of fundamental human rights.”
The statement says that banning girls and women from education and higher learning is destroying the future of millions of Afghan citizens and contradicts internationally recognized human rights principles and obligations.
The Free Movement in Exile also criticized what it called the “silence and inaction of the international community,” emphasizing that verbal condemnations alone are insufficient and that concrete and effective measures must be taken to end these restrictions.
The statement calls on governments, the United Nations, and other international organizations to increase political and diplomatic pressure on the Taliban to immediately lift all restrictions on the education of women and girls. It also urges targeted sanctions against the Taliban’s Minister of Higher Education and other officials whom the movement says are directly involved in designing and implementing policies that deprive women of their right to education.
The statement concludes by stressing that education is a fundamental and inalienable right and that no government has the authority to deny half of society access to this basic right on the basis of gender.
Source: Statement by Arzoo Gardizi, Head of the Free Movement in Exile.
