UNICEF Reports on Afghan Schools

The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) released a report which revealed that the number of children, and especially girls, who are unschooled in Afghanistan is increasing, and that the repressive Taliban regime continues to violate a U.N. agreement to stop discrimination against women and girls.

According to the report, nearly nine of ten girls and two of three boys are not attending school, and the literacy rates for adult men and women is only 47% and 15%, respectively.

Twenty years of civil war and Taliban decrees prohibiting women from working and attending school have drastically reduced the number of teachers and prompted the decline of Afghan schools.

Media Resources: NNI - January 1, 1999

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