Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, expressing deep concern over the state of education in Afghanistan, has called on the international community to intensify diplomatic pressure on the Taliban and to relentlessly demand the reopening of schools and universities for women and girls.

Simon Harris, the Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland, on the fourth anniversary of the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, said that with the return of this group to power, the human rights situation in Afghanistan has worsened, with women, girls, and minorities suffering the most.

Johann Wadephul, the German Foreign Minister, on the fourth anniversary of the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, said that with the return of this group to power, the lives of the Afghan people, especially women and girls, have been completely transformed.

On the fourth anniversary of the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, members of the Afghanistan Women’s Movement in Exile, by holding a gathering in Pakistan, described the four years of Taliban rule as “an era of oppression, discrimination, ignorance, and the systematic elimination of women.”