{"id":379,"date":"2026-08-31T11:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T10:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/childrensrights\/?p=379"},"modified":"2026-08-31T15:41:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T14:41:03","slug":"gulabon-ke-gajre-response-by-erika-jimenez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/childrensrights\/2026\/08\/31\/gulabon-ke-gajre-response-by-erika-jimenez\/","title":{"rendered":"Gulabon ke gajre: Response by Erika Jim\u00e9nez"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dr Erika Jim\u00e9nez responds to a blog by Tahera<\/a>, a young girl from Afghanistan. She explores the impact of discrimination faced by Afghan women and girls on their right to education. She highlights research which connects reduced school attendance with risks to children such as child labour, forced marriage, exploitation, and trafficking. She draws on research conducted with children and young people from Palestine to show how displacement and conflict shape their everyday lived experiences of human rights. Finally, she commends Tahera for exercising her rights, calling attention to injustice, and asking us to keep caring.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tahera\u2019s blog transports us to the streets of Quetta, a city on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan,<\/ins> where she notices children who, instead of being in school, are working to survive and are confronted with \u2018bigger problems than solving a puzzle\u2019, as she puts it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tahera writes from a place that has been impacted by decades of conflict, displacement, natural disasters, political upheaval and more recently rapid changes that followed the US and NATO forces\u2019 chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. Soon after the withdrawal, the Taliban quickly returned to power and began implementing a series of decrees targeting the rights of girls and women; especially their right to education. According to UNESCO<\/a>, Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and women are officially prohibited from secondary and higher school education. The UN<\/a> estimates that around 2.4 million girls have been excluded from secondary school since the Taliban takeover five years ago. UN experts<\/a> have characterised the discrimination of girls and women in Afghanistan using the term \u2018gender apartheid\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important to acknowledge that from 2001, the so-called \u2018liberation\u2019 of Afghan women and girls was frequently invoked by Western governments, news media<\/a>, and even Amnesty International<\/a>, as part of the justification for military intervention in Afghanistan. Yet Tahera\u2019s reflections offer us important insights into the rights-concerns of children decades later and her words guide us back to children\u2019s own perspectives and everyday experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tahera\u2019s blog is important because it reminds us that behind such reports, international legal debates, and military intervention and withdrawal, are children whose daily lives are impacted by such repressive policies, both domestic and foreign. Her account reminds us of the rights-holders behind the statistics and that she is not writing about a temporary disruption to education but a generation of girls whose right to education is being denied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Education, however, is not just about attending lessons and sitting exams. It is a protective factor recognised in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child<\/a> (UNCRC), which helps reduce risks to children of economic exploitation, trafficking, violence and the effects of armed conflict (Articles 19, 32, 35 and 38).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tahera\u2019s description of children working rather than attending school echoes concerns that were raised in earlier research on Afghanistan that I was involved in. Our report<\/a>, written in response to the US and NATO withdrawal, warned that worsening economic conditions along with reduced school attendance would place Afghan children at a heightened risk of child labour, trafficking, forced marriage and exploitation. Families, such as that of the girl selling the garlands of flowers in Tahera\u2019s blog, do not choose between education and work. Rather, it is conflict, poverty and discriminatory policies against children and girls that often push children into having to work to support their families\u2019 survival. Tahera\u2019s words echo arguments made by children\u2019s rights scholars that emphasise that the right to education is also a gateway to the enjoyment of other connected rights such as the right to play (Article 31), protection (Articles 19 and 38), and a voice in matters affecting one’s life (Article 12).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The part of Tahera\u2019s blog that struck me was when she reflects: \u2018We say education is a right, yet some children are taught by the brutal world instead of a kind teacher\u2019. Her words resonate with research<\/a> I have conducted with Palestinian children and young people. Their lives were also profoundly impacted by prolonged displacement, protracted occupation and regional conflict. The young people I spoke to learned about children\u2019s rights in school through human rights education. However, the way they understood, critiqued, and mobilised these rights was often more profoundly shaped by their everyday lived experiences of human rights, whether enjoyed, denied, or struggled for. Similarly, Tahera\u2019s words do not shy away from but rather engage with a similar tension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my previous research, schools were often described by Palestinian children as more than places of learning but as spaces where they could enjoy rights not experienced in wider society. Places where they could express their views freely and have those views taken seriously, feel safe, experience dignity, enjoy play, and dream about the future together. Palestinian young people also identified intersecting injustices they experience as Palestinians and as young people. While many identified the Israeli occupation as the main barrier to the enjoyment of their rights, they also discussed how patriarchal practices and the oppressive practices of ruling elites further hindered the rights of non-elites, girls and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although these contexts are not the same, conflict, displacement and gender discrimination often interferes with more than schooling. These harms may be less visible than the destruction of buildings or the closure of schools but their impacts on friendships, employment opportunities, and hopes for the future are bound up in exclusion from schooling.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tahera laments that their childhoods are very often \u2018invisible\u2019. We often see this at work when children become known mainly as refugees, labourers, or those affected by conflict and displacement, rather than as children with rights and agency. And yet as Tahera reminds us, children\u2019s rights do not get put on hold because of conflict or the discriminatory policies of those in power. Rather, she re-positions these children as the beneficiaries of children\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By sharing her reflections, Tahera does more than bring our attention to the injustices faced by Afghan girls and women. She exercises her right to express her views on matters that affect her and her peers\u2019 lives. Her words are reminiscent of those of Palestinian youth, who often spoke about feeling unheard, ignored and isolated in their struggles for rights. They did not seek sympathy but solidarity. They asked for recognition and wanted their voices to reach people beyond Palestine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tahera\u2019s blog issues a similar invitation. What is really striking is how Tahera extends her concerns beyond Afghan girls but towards refugees, migrants, girls experiencing discrimination and those who have been marginalised elsewhere. She shows us how inequalities intersect. The struggles for children\u2019s rights are not isolated struggles, but they are connected through demands for dignity, equality, protection, participation and recognition. Tahera asks us to resist indifference, to keep talking, keep caring, and keep struggles for equality and education alive whenever children\u2019s rights are under threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the Author<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Erika is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of Law at Queen’s University Belfast, where she is also a Fellow of the Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice and a member of the Centre for Children’s Rights. Her research focuses on children’s and young people’s experiences of human rights, particularly in contexts of conflict, occupation and marginalisation. She is the author of Rethinking Human Rights: Critical Insights from Palestinian Youth<\/em> (Hart, 2024) and is currently researching the human rights experiences of youth living in Syrian Druze villages in the occupied Golan Heights. She is passionate about research that centres the voices and lived experiences of children and young people in marginalised communities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Erika Jim\u00e9nez responds to a blog by Tahera, a young girl from Afghanistan. She explores the impact of discrimination faced by Afghan women and girls on their right to education. She highlights research which connects reduced school attendance with risks to children such as child labour, forced marriage, exploitation, and trafficking. She draws on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2456,"featured_media":388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-children-and-conflict","category-education","czr-hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/childrensrights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/86\/2026\/08\/Garland-of-Roses.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/childrensrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/childrensrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/childrensrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/childrensrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2456"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/childrensrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/childrensrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":386,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/childrensrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions\/386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/childrensrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/childrensrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/childrensrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/childrensrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}