An “Education Crisis” in Afghanistan

December 7, 2023

Evening, Meteor readers,

Did y’all see who TIME voted person of the year? Not to sound like a hipster, but she has been my person of the year since 2012 when the spirit first moved me to jump up on a coffee table and jam out to a burned copy of RED my friend gave me. (Thank you, Brittany, for showing me the light all those years ago.)

In today’s newsletter, we learn of a new crisis unfolding in Afghanistan. Plus, a little unsportswomanlike gloating, and our weekend reading list and a special feature on an inspiring young activist.

Balancing it all,

Shannon Melero

WHAT’S GOING ON

Lost boys: Since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, the harrowing conditions faced by women and girls in Afghanistan, including their loss of access to education, have been widely shared. But a new report from Human Rights Watch is shedding light on a new group of victims who may have been overlooked: school-age boys.

The report has discovered an “alarming deterioration in boys’ access to education” —what HRW describes as an education crisis that could create a “lost generation.” Before the Taliban’s return, most schoolteachers were women; now that they’re barred from teaching, boys are attending classes led by unqualified male teachers, and in some cases, there are no teachers at all.

One student who spoke with the researchers said, “The newly hired teachers have highly aggressive behavior toward the students, so the school environment is full of fear.” The report found that many students have stopped going to school altogether to avoid the sharp uptick in corporal punishment. Another student recounted to HRW that he had been whipped on his feet during a morning assembly and had his head shaved in front of his classmates because his hairstyle was “too Western.”

A common thread among all the students interviewed is how deeply they feel the absence of the women who once taught them—including those with specialization in subjects like physics and biology, subjects that are no longer being taught in some schools because of a lack of qualified educators.

The long-term effects of the education crisis, coupled with Afghanistan’s current economic crisis, will reverberate for generations. When boys and girls are denied access to education, they are more likely to experience heightened rates of discrimination, poverty, and violence. The future of an entire nation is being determined at this very moment, and unless the Taliban can be convinced to function in their country’s best interests, it will be a dark one indeed.

AND:

Meet Abrianna Morales, a sexual assault survivor turned advocate, working to ensure no more young women endure what she did through her organization Sexual Assault Youth Support Network. “We’re not only begging to be believed, but we’re begging for adults to let us at least try to change the world.”

MORALES (CENTER) SURROUNDED BY FELLOW SURVIVORS AND SUPPORTERS IN HER YOUTH NETWORK. (PHOTO COURTESY OF ABRIANNA MORALES)

An enormous win for trans kids in Wisconsin: On Wednesday, Governor Tony Evers vetoed a bill that would have banned gender-affirming care for minors across the state. During the signing of the veto, Evers said, “I am vetoing this bill in its entirety because I object to the Legislature’s ongoing efforts to manufacture and perpetuate false, hateful, and discriminatory anti-LGBTQ policies and rhetoric in our state.”
This week, the Biden administration announced that it will start implementing visa bans on any Israelis who were considered “extremist settlers” in the West Bank in response to growing violence in the region. This suggests a slight change in tone from an administration that has approved significant money for the fourth most powerful military in the world.
In September, an Ohio woman named Brittany Wyat miscarried in her bathroom at 22 weeks, leaving the remains of her nonviable pregnancy in the toilet. This week, she was formally charged with “felony abuse of a corpse,” and her case will be heard before a grand jury. Wyatt’s charge is based on the allegation that there were “signs of injury” to the fetus.
This is an odd story here, but stay with me; it involves Ron DeSantis being a menace. This year, Florida State’s football team had an undefeated season but were surprisingly excluded from the College Football Playoffs. Many sports people are angry and confounded by this. But DeSantis took it a step further, asking to take $1 million out of the state budget so he could use it to sue the Playoff committee. And this is the same guy some Republicans want in charge of a federal budget!
Legendary producer Norman Lear died this week at the age of 101. Lear created and produced some of the greatest sitcoms of the last fifty years, notably All in the Family, Good Times, The Jeffersons, Maude, and Sanford and Sons.
Great Britain and Sweden’s women’s soccer teams will be sitting out the Paris Olympics next year since neither team qualified, despite some impressive performances. Terrible news….for them. 😈 You know who will be in Paris, though? Les Américains!

TRINITY RODMAN STRIKING A WINNING POSE AT TRAINING CAMP. (IMAGE BY BRAD SMITH VIA GETTY IMAGES)

WEEKEND READING 📚

On pregnancy: What’s it like to be a pregnant trans man in America? (The 19th)
On TV: The Golden Bachelor finale proves that not all old men who glitter are gold. (Slate)
On the street: Young adult and teens experiencing homelessness are up against a system that doesn’t have the funding to help them. (Teen Vogue)