Taliban ban UN human rights rapporteur in Afghanistan

The Islamist regime has claimed Richard Bennet was spreading "propaganda." The UN has accused the Taliban of creating a system of "gender apartheid."

Transcript

00:00There was a day in the spring of 2022 when older Afghan girls and young women felt the

00:07rush of the first day of classes, greeting their friends, laughing, and thinking about

00:13the future.

00:17The ban on girls in secondary and higher education had been lifted, and some girls actually made

00:23it into classrooms where teachers actually taught them.

00:30A couple of hours of learning for some, a couple of minutes for others.

00:35It ended in a dream-crushing blow when Taliban leaders changed their minds.

00:40But I don't know why Taliban don't want girls go to university, go to school.

00:49I don't know.

00:51But I am thinking about that always.

00:56Small but vocal protests followed, women risking arrest.

01:00But the Taliban said higher education for boys was OK, not for girls.

01:08Any action that is taken, whether it's economic, social, cultural, educational or military,

01:14will be under the influence of Sharia laws.

01:20Political pressure on the Taliban to alter its stance has fallen on deaf ears.

01:26If you are a girl in Afghanistan, the Taliban has decided your future for you.

01:33And that future, the U.N. rapporteur and U.N. officials say, is bleak.

01:38The ban on girls' education is fueling an increase in child marriage and early childbearing,

01:42with dire physical, emotional and economic consequences.

01:46Reports of attempted suicides among women and girls are also increasing.

01:51A U.N.-funded report says oppression now goes far, far beyond the education ban and possibly

01:57amounts to crimes against humanity.

02:00But it cites the ingenuity of Afghan women and girls, like those girls at this secret

02:07school, risking captivity or worse for the sake of a dream and life after the Taliban.