Afghan schoolgirls are finishing sixth grade in tears. Under Taliban rule, their education is over
Afghan schoolgirls are weeping as they finish sixth grade, knowing their education is over. Under Taliban rule, they are unlikely to ever step foot in a classroom again.
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My initial thought experiment on this was "could these girls migrate to the west on a visa to complete their studies and return?", and then I went down the rabbit hole of the demographics of Afghanistan. Of a population of around 40m, 46% are under 15, which is mad! That's potentially a lot of girls that will lose an education.
I wonder if a remote education could be the way forward? Let these girls study remotely online, assuming they have some form of internet access available, and create a worldwide visa that would allow any Afghan girl that can pass a standard entry exam to attend university. While we have no need to provide children from another country an education, this would probably be a low-cost solution, and one that I imagine many rich philanthropists would happily provide as a grant.
This solution sort of implies that the Taliban would allow it. Like the whole system over there isn't designed to crush these women as a form of control. It's not a lack of ability to educate them this is by design of their government.
For a visa like this to work you'd need the government and the Men of the country to be in agreement with it happening. That currently isn't the case. Providing a visa that almost no one will be able to use even if they wanted too would not only not help but could easily be something that's pointed to as "we're already providing a way for them to get educated and we don't have to do anything else."
True, under current laws women obviously can't travel without a man present, so it would basically mean sending a full family over, or at the very least, a parent or partner with them.
My main point of highlighting it was that it's not a small number of people, and that the young population of Afghanistan isn't anywhere near as small as I thought. A remote education might help, as it's something that women can access without having a man present.
The young population is really high in Gaza too. You often see that with poor nations.
Not to bang on about this but, how are you building the infrastructure to get reliable internet (that the men won't let women access anyway) to remote afghan villages that don't even have running water?
I think you're wildly under estimating the control men have over women there. You also may be under the impression it's just the government trying to control and crush these women, it's not. The average man in Afghanistan is not only complicit but active in subjugating Afghani women. This isn't about lack of access to education, it's about lack of personhood and autonomy for women. Afghanistan has education, women just aren't allowed to be educated.
Edit: so I just realized you're probably really young given the solutions you've proposed. (I reread and suggesting to send a full family/guardian can only be someone young or a troll.) I apologize if I'm coming off really harsh. The reality is just that men are actively trying to subjugate/control/own/deny basic human rights to women in some of these countries and your comments completely missing that got under my skin. My apologies.
Coming close to my forties, but I'll take the youth comment! It's not a serious suggestion, but more of a discussion starter to how help could be given in instances where women want an education AND their families support them.
It kind of makes sense because I bet the life expectancy in Afghanistan is not very high at all, so a higher percentage of the population would tend to be younger because of that.
there's also the whole issue of, you know, not letting them in cuz they have no education or marketable skills
we don't just let people in
