of attempted talks with the Taliban aimed at lifting its bans on secondary and university education and work for women in Afghanistan, the U.N. is proposing a plan to pressure Afghanistan and incentivize the Taliban to reverse course., a number that will increase to 3 million in a few months.
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the U.N.'s envoy for global education, announced a five-point plan on Tuesday that includes bringing the issue to the attention of the International Criminal Court. Brown said that he has submitted a legal opinion to ICC prosecutor Karim Khan asking him to open an investigation into the denial of education to girls. Brown also asked the court to consider the Taliban's repression of women's rights to education and employment as a crime against humanity.
Deena Rahimi, a twelfth-grade student, reads a book at her residence in Kabul on March 21, 2023. Afghanistan's schools reopened in March, but hundreds of thousands of girls remain barred from attending class.