[women-rights] UN Afghan mission probes reported ban of male teachers in girls' schools

UN AFGHAN MISSION PROBES REPORTED BAN OF MALE TEACHERS IN GIRLS' SCHOOLS
New York, Jan 30 2003  6:00PM

Following reports that male teachers have been banned from teaching girls 
in Afghanistan's Herat Province, the United Nations mission has sent a 
senior human rights adviser to that community to look into the issue of 
girls' education.

A spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said today 
that at a meeting which included representatives of the UN and the Afghan 
Independent Human Rights Commission, the Herat Education Department 
explained that the decree had in fact come from the Ministry of Education.

  "The authorities reportedly took action after receiving letters of 
complaint from the parents of female students protesting against their 
daughters being taught by male teachers," Manoel de Almeida e Silva said. 
The problem had emerged particularly in the so-called winter courses for 
girls - the private courses attended by girls to make up for lost school 
years.

The Herat Education Department explained that the measure would not affect 
the access of girls to education, since there is a sufficient number of 
female teachers in the province. And while a UN Children's Fund (UNIICEF) 
rapid assessment generally supports that, Mr. de Almeida e Silva noted that 
"[girls' education] might be affected in the rural areas where the number 
of female teachers is smaller, or in specialized courses such as English 
language or computer courses where the number of female teachers is 
particularly low."

The UNAMA rights adviser and UNICEF will follow up the meeting with the 
Ministry of Education, discussing how the decree is being implemented, if 
at all, at national level and to assess its impact in other parts of 
Afghanistan, the spokesman added.

In other news from Afghanistan, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the 
Ministry of Housing and Development signed an agreement today in Kabul to 
facilitate planning, management, and implementation of urban reconstruction 
projects. Similar projects have already created employment opportunities 
for over 30,000 local Afghans in Kabul. Other programmes have benefited 
15,000 Afghans in Jalalabad and 30,000 in Kandahar. The programmes under 
the agreement are funded by the Government of Japan and the European 
Commission.