Page 30 - bon-dia-aruba-20210925

A30 world news
Diasabra 25 september 2021

To protect Afghan girls, UN panel urges conditions on aid

government said. came to the Prophet Muhammad
Afghanistan, which relies heavily was ”iqra,” which means “read”, said
U.N. Deputy Secretary-General on foreign aid, faces near total pov- Fawzia Koofi, first woman deputy
Amina Mohammed said that “by and erty resulting from political instabil- speaker of parliament in Afghanistan.
large, we’re very concerned” about ity, frozen foreign reserves and a col- She spoke on the panel from Qatar.
measures restricting girls’ access to lapsed public finance system. This
education since the Taliban took con- month, U.N. donors pledged more “To the international community...
trol of the country following the U.S. than $1.2 billion in emergency as- my message would be to emphasize
withdrawal and collapse of the Af- sistance to help provide a lifeline to on girls’ return to school,” Koofi said.
ghan government in August. Afghanistan. She asked participants to realize that
an Afghanistan that is oppressing
“I think the international community The executive director of UNICEF, more than half its population cannot
here, first and foremost, has to draw Henrietta Fore, said such aid gives be a reliable partner in the world.
on the expertise, on the leadership of the United Nations some leverage
(AP) — Aid to Afghanistan should Afghan women... to stop the reversal, in tackling both the “humanitarian Activist Malala Yousafzai, who serves
be made conditional to ensure to remain in school,” she said in the emergency” and the emerging “hu- as a U.N. “messenger of peace,” said
the protection of women’s rights U.N. panel that focused on ways to man rights emergency” in Afghani- the world cannot make compromises
and access to education under the support girls’ education in Afghani- stan. UNICEF is responsible for on the protection of women’s rights.
rule of the Taliban government, a stan. The virtual discussion took providing humanitarian and develop- Yousafzai was shot in the head on her
panel of high-level speakers said place on the sidelines of the U.N. mental aid to children. way home from school as a teenager
at the United Nations on Friday. General Assembly, where the Taliban in 2012 by a Taliban gunman in Paki-
have requested to speak as represen- The Taliban, while promising inclu- stan’s Swat Valley for her campaign-
Since taking control of the country tatives of Afghanistan. sivity and an open government, have ing for girls’ education.
last month when the U.S.-backed excluded women from their all-male
government collapsed, the Taliban Mohammed said aid to Afghanistan Cabinet and set up a ministry for the The Taliban’s “atrocities are count-
have allowed younger girls and boys can “absolutely” be made conditional “ propagation of virtue and the pre- less,” she said. “My worry is that this
back to school. But in grades six to on education for girls and women. vention of vice ” in the building that will continue in Afghanistan. My
12, they have allowed only boys back She said the United Nations and the once housed the Women’s Affairs worry is that the same situation will
to school along with their male teach- international community can help Ministry. During the previous era of repeat all over again.”
ers. ensure Afghanistan’s economy does Taliban rule in the 1990s, before they
not collapse and that educators and were ousted by a U.S.-led coalition, Mohammed, the U.N. deputy sec-
The United Nations says 4.2 million health care workers continue to be girls and women were denied an edu- retary-general, noted the Prophet
children are not enrolled in school in paid. cation and were excluded from public Muhammad’s wife, Khadija, was a
Afghanistan, and 60% of them girls. life. successful businesswoman whom
“This is where we have to really have he supported in her business — an
The Taliban have also said female resolve that recognition comes with More than 100,000 people have fled observation she said can be used by
university students will face restric- your ability to be part of a global fam- Afghanistan in the wake of the Tal- countries in the region to show that
tions, such as a compulsory dress ily that has a certain set of values and iban takeover last month, including “you’re not outside of Islam, you’re
code, and will not be allowed in the rights that must be adhered to,” she thousands of female activists, stu- not outside of the preachings of the
same classrooms as their male coun- said. “Education is up front and cen- dents and intellectuals. Quran, when we promote the rights
terparts. Additionally, the subjects be- ter, especially for girls and for wom- of women and girls.”
ing taught will be reviewed, the new en.” The first revelation of the Quran that

Jailbreak shines light on mass incarceration of Palestinians

(AP) — The cinematic es- prisoners and, more broadly, SYMBOLS OF STRUG- said Dani Shenhar, the legal held without charge in so-
cape of six prisoners who what constitutes legitimate GLE director of HaMoked, an Is- called administrative deten-
tunneled out of an Israeli resistance to occupation. raeli group that advocates for tion, perhaps the most con-
penitentiary earlier this The Palestinian prisoners the rights of detainees. troversial aspect of Israel’s
month shone a light on Is- Israel classifies nearly every held by Israel include every- military justice system.
rael’s mass incarceration act of opposition to its mili- one from hardened militants Four of the escapees were
of Palestinians, one of the tary rule as a criminal offense, convicted of suicide bomb- known militants convicted of Qadoura Fares, head of the
many bitter fruits of the while many Palestinians see ings and shootings that killed deadly attacks against Israelis. Prisoners Club, which repre-
conflict. those acts as resistance and Israeli civilians to activists Of the more than 4,600 Pal- sents current and former Pal-
those engaged in them as detained for demonstrating estinians currently held by estinian prisoners, said they
Hundreds of thousands of heroes, even if they kill or against settlements and teen- Israel in connection with the are all “freedom fighters.”
Palestinians have passed wound Israelis. agers arrested for throwing conflict — known as “secu-
through a military justice sys- stones at Israeli soldiers. rity prisoners” — more than “We see them as symbols
tem designed for what Israel Israel has granted limited 500 are serving life sentences. of the Palestinian people’s
still portrays as a temporary autonomy to the Palestinian Israel says it provides due A similar number are being struggle,” he said.
occupation, but that is now Authority, which adminis- process and largely imprisons
well into its sixth decade and ters cities and towns in the those who threaten its secu-
critics say is firmly cemented. occupied West Bank and is rity, though a small number
responsible for regular law are held for petty crimes.
Nearly every Palestinian has enforcement. But Israel has Palestinians and human
a loved one who has been overarching authority and rights groups say the system
locked up in that system at the military regularly carries is designed to quash opposi-
some point, and imprison- out arrest raids even in PA- tion and maintain permanent
ment is widely seen as one run areas. Israel seized the control over millions of Pal-
of the most painful aspects of West Bank along with east estinians while denying them
life under Israeli rule. Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip basic rights.
in the 1967 war. The Pales-
The saga of the six, who tinians seek an independent “Mass incarceration of Pales-
were eventually recaptured, state in all three. tinians is a means to control
also underscored the irrec- the population, to stifle po-
oncilable views Israelis and ___ litical activity, to keep a lid
Palestinians hold about the on turmoil and activism,”