The United States on Tuesday (October 11th) announced new sanctions targeting the Taliban in retaliation for the treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan. “Today, I am announcing restrictions on the issuance of visas…to current and former members of the Taliban and other individuals deemed responsible for or complicit in the repression of women and girls in Afghanistan across restrictive policies and violence”Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on the tenth anniversary of International Day of the Girl.
According to Antony Blinken, Afghanistan remains “for a year now the only country in the world where girls have been systematically banned from going to school beyond the sixth grade, with no return date in sight”. The Taliban, which regained power in August 2021 after the Americans withdrew, banned secondary education (middle and high school) for girls. Female students, on the other hand, are admitted to university. A recent suicide attack committed in a training center for students in Kabul killed 53 people, including at least 46 girls and young women, according to a report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Manua).