The Afghan community is calling on the U.S. and other countries to intervene in the wake of an education ban in Afghanistan.
The community says they are distraught over these recent developments and add that it's up to the world as a whole to make sure the Taliban keeps its promises to uphold rights for women.
Henry Harris is the managing director at the International Institute of New England in Manchester. The organization has been helping refugees from Afghanistan relocate to New Hampshire since the Taliban came back to power last year.
“A lot of uncertainty about how the Taliban is taking over the government and what they're doing,” Harris said.
A feeling that is all too real for Sarah Niazi, a case worker for the institution.
"Afghans are human. We are people,” Niazi said. “We have girls that – they just want an education."
A refugee herself, Niazi immigrated to the U.S. before the Taliban’s recent takeover, but her family still in Afghanistan tells her these are difficult days for those who remain, especially women and girls.
Her two cousins were set to attend Kabul University until the Taliban’s ministry of higher education ordered all private and government-run universities to ban women from attending.
“They were so excited,” Niazi said. “They had a huge celebration on Saturday getting ready for college, and now they've been calling me saying, 'Auntie, I don't know what to do. Auntie, can you get me out of here so I can just go to school?"
She said it's now on the U.S. and other nations to make sure the Taliban is keeping the promises it made to keep rights for women.
“Give a voice to those that don't have a voice and take action,” Harris said.
On Wednesday, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said the U.S. and the global community must uphold their promise to safeguard fundamental freedoms in Afghanistan.
“Afghan women continue to bear the brunt of the Taliban’s abhorrent violence & revocation of rights. The U.S. and the global community must uphold our promise to safeguard fundamental freedoms – like access to education – for Afghan women & hold the Taliban to account,” Shaheen said in a statement.
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