In Peril: Education for Women and Girls in Afghanistan & Iran

Schoolgirls poisoned in Iran, women and girls barred from school in Afghanistan: The global fight for equal rights continues in 2023.

Photo by Nk Ni on Unsplash

“Women’s Day rallies seek equal rights, focus on Iran, Afghanistan,” reported Reuters on the morning of International Women’s Day 2023. It was a stark reminder of how far the crusade for women’s rights has come over the past century and how far the movement has yet to go.

The first National Woman’s Day was observed in the United States in 1909. The idea to make it an international event was proposed at an International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen the following year.

Since its inception, International Women’s Day has been an opportunity to spotlight issues like domestic violence, pay equality, and education for women and girls in emerging nations.

Unfortunately, over a century after the first International Women’s Day, there are still many countries around the world where educational opportunities for women and girls are being denied or restricted.

Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the Middle East, and women’s access to education is severely limited by poverty and cultural norms that prioritize marriage and domestic roles far above education. Only a small percentage of women in Yemen are…