Sonia Walehdy

Lack of education is the main cause of poverty and up till today Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world.
Poverty in Afghanistan is widespread throughout rural and urban areas; mainly related to the high illiteracy rate, where 90 per cent of women and 63 per cent of men are unable to read or write.
The right to free and compulsory education is viewed by many as one of the most fundamental of all human rights.
Since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, many would agree that the political and cultural position of Afghanistani women has improved substantially. This is due to the rights of education given to this poor country.
In total, more than a million girls are now at school in Afghanistan. In fact more girls are now attending school in Afghanistan than in the decade before the Taleban introduced its ban on female education but the situation in rural areas for girls education still is a serious problem. .
According to The Guardian, "Attacks on schools and threatening messages to the parents to keep their girls at home or even girls poisoned to death for daring to go to school” still continues in Afghanistan.
But besides all these problems, education in Afghanistan suffers from shortage of facilities and luck of trained teachers at every level of education.
The reconstruction of the Afghanistan educational system, however, is far from complete. There are still around 2 million students living in rural areas, many in refugee camps, who continue to be denied their right to education.

But by working together and supporting the European Campaign for Human Rights in Afghanistan and Dr Nasimi, we can all speed up the process of educationing our women here in UK and our beloved country. And this process has started here in this project “ECHRA”.
The recently adopted constitution in Afghanistan states that "the citizens of Afghanistan - whether man or woman - have equal rights and duties before the law", so let us all to be a part of a big change in our society!
We want from this conference:

• To find the way how we can build partnership with the Ministry of Education in Afghanistan and how we can support our women here in the UK.
• To apply for funding to build primary schools for disable children and literacy classes for disable women in rural parts of Afghanistan.
• Find UK organisations to support ECHRA in Scholarships for young girls to come and study abroad from rural areas of Afghanistan.

Finally, we must all really appreciate the very hard work approved by Dr. Nasimi in helping our people understand British educational system by providing Supplementary school and training. His contribution in providing educational activities and helping children and young people integrate into both the Afghanistani community and British society is outstanding. I would therefore like you all to express your thanks to Dr Nooralhaq Nasimi for his efforts.