OIC Reaffirms Afghan Girls’ Right to Education, Especially in Medicine

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has stressed the right of Afghan girls to education and the need for them to continue their studies, especially in medical sciences, during a meeting with Taliban officials in Kabul, as the ban on girls’ education beyond sixth grade and women’s university studies remains in place.

The organisation said on Monday that Tariq Ali Bakhit, the OIC special envoy for Afghanistan, had discussed the state of education and health services with officials from the Taliban-run Ministry of Public Health and Ministry of Education.

According to the OIC, Bakhit said the presence of trained female staff was essential for providing health services and stressed the need to create opportunities for specialised medical training for girls.

In a separate meeting with the acting head of the Taliban’s Ministry of Education, he discussed the curriculum, girls’ right to education and proposed OIC projects to develop Afghanistan’s education sector.

The OIC said the meetings were held in connection with follow-up on the resolutions of the meeting of foreign ministers of its member states on Afghanistan. In recent years, the organisation has repeatedly called on the Taliban administration to lift educational restrictions on girls and women and to create access to education for them.

Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban administration has banned girls from studying beyond sixth grade and women from attending university, restrictions that have drawn widespread criticism from the international community and Islamic institutions.