MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th April, 2023) Iran is ready to help Afghanistan organize female schooling, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said Thursday, after Kabul banned girls from accessing education beyond elementary school.
"Iran is ready to provide more assistance to the education of Afghan girls and women with the help of the United Nations and by encouraging the interim ruling body toward this important matter," Amirabdollahian was quoted as saying by the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
The top Iranian diplomat spoke at a meeting with his Russian, Chinese and Pakistani counterparts in the Uzbek city of Samarkand. The talks were held in the run-up to the fourth meeting of Afghanistan's neighbors, who also include Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.
Afghanistan is the only country in the world that bans girls and young women from attending secondary school and places of higher education, according to the United Nations.
The Taliban (a militant group targeted by UN sanctions for terrorism) barred female students from universities after the militants overran Kabul in August 2021. They prohibited girls from going to secondary schools for the second consecutive year just hours after schools reopened in March 2023.
The United Nations warned last month that the ban on female education would impact an entire generation and the future of Afghanistan. Since the ban took effect, rates of child marriage and child labor have increased, UN experts said.
