Calgary charity marks five years of Taliban rule, cites 2.4 million girls barred from school
As the Taliban's 2021 takeover of Kabul hits its fifth anniversary, a Calgary-based advocacy group says the world must not look away from the plight of Afghan women and girls.
Why it matters
A Calgary charity is playing a direct role in supporting Afghan girls' education despite Taliban restrictions, linking the crisis to Canada's own costly military history in Afghanistan.
Five years after the Taliban seized Kabul on Aug. 15, 2021, Murwarid Ziayee, senior director of the Calgary-based charity Right to Learn Afghanistan, is calling on Canadians to keep pressing for action on behalf of Afghan women. Ziayee, who was raised in Afghanistan, said the burden of resisting oppression should not fall on Afghan women alone, and that people outside the country still have power to act.
Canada spent 13 years in Afghanistan as part of a NATO mission, deploying more than 40,000 Canadian Armed Forces members after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, many stationed in Kandahar. The mission cost 158 Canadian soldiers their lives, along with civilians including journalist Michelle Lang, and left many veterans with lasting physical and psychological injuries.
Since retaking power after the U.S.-led NATO withdrawal, the Taliban has barred girls from schooling beyond Grade 6, excluded women from a growing list of jobs, and banned them from parks, gyms and sports centres. A ban on medical education has also shrunk the pool of women able to treat other women. Ziayee said roughly 2.4 million Afghan girls are now barred from education, with many not even reaching Grade 6 due to financial hardship.
The United Nations says sanctions and natural disasters have driven economic collapse and severe child malnutrition, while UNICEF has recorded a sharp rise in child marriage. UN Women called Afghanistan's restrictions on women unmatched anywhere in the modern world. Right to Learn Afghanistan is among groups offering virtual classrooms, scholarships and online libraries to Afghan students, with some describing in reflections shared with the charity how they continue to hold onto hope despite the restrictions.
Compiled by the Alberta Daily Desk — an AI-written summary of reporting from the credited sources below, produced and reviewed under our editorial policy.