Obama, Bush and Clinton join forces to help Afghan evacuees. Taliban ban girls from secondary education
Three of the nation’s four most recent former presidents are coming together to offer their support to a new organization that aims to assist Afghan evacuees who are resettling in the United States after fleeing Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, as well as former first ladies Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama, are joining Welcome.US as honorary co-chairs “to lift up everyone else involved and remind us that this is our opportunity, in a time of all too much division, for common purpose,” the group’s website states.
The organization, which launched Tuesday, also boasts a welcome council composed of former and current government officials from both parties, military and business leaders, and activists. It brings together a coalition of organizations helping Afghan allies as they arrive in the U.S. and businesses making financial or in-kind contributions to resettlement efforts.
Welcome.US billed itself as a “first of its kind national organization that will engage Americans and mobilize support across sectors for Afghan refugees” and said in a press release it will provide a “single point of entry for Americans who want to get involved” with helping Afghans who have fled the country. [Continue reading…]
The Taliban have effectively banned girls from secondary education in Afghanistan, by ordering high schools to re-open only for boys.
Girls were not mentioned in Friday’s announcement, which means boys will be back at their desks next week after a one-month hiatus, while their sisters will still be stuck at home.
The Taliban education ministry said secondary school classes for boys in grades seven to 12 would resume on Saturday, the start of the Afghan week. “All male teachers and students should attend their educational institutions,” the statement said. The future of girls and female teachers, stuck at home since the Taliban took control, was not addressed.
The edict makes Afghanistan the only country on earth to bar half its population from getting a secondary education. [Continue reading…]