The campaign, AfghanGirlsVoices, was launched on Tuesday to elevate the voices of young Afghan girls deprived of their basic right to education, precisely came two years after the de facto Taliban authorities seized control of the country.
The United Nations released a statement on Tuesday which stated that the campaign was developed in collaboration with Education Cannot Wait (ECW), a UN fund dedicated to enabling continuous learning for children during emergencies and prolonged crises, Champion Somaya Faruqi, former captain of the Afghan Girls’ Robotic Team, with compelling artwork by a young Afghan female artist.
“The courage of these girls in Afghanistan gives me the strength to use my own voice as an ECW Global Champion to amplify their voices to the world,” said Faruqi.
“The situation is taking an immense toll on girl’s mental health and rates of suicide for girls has gone up in the last two years. It’s more urgent than ever to act now, and I hope that next year, we celebrate their freedom rather than mark their oppression,” she added.
As per a recent report by UN experts, the condition of women and girls in Afghanistan is the ‘worst globally’.
The systematic curtailment of their human rights, coupled with the profound bias they face under the regime of the de facto Taliban authorities, could potentially qualify as “gender apartheid” and “gender persecution,” the report said.