📝 Why I keep count of the number of days girls are not in school in Afghanistan: I am keeping track of every single day girls are banned from school because history must not repeat itself in silence. When the Taliban first took control in 1995, they banned girls’ education, and for six long years, the world didn’t keep count. Many couldn’t even remember exactly how long girls were denied this fundamental right. I remember in 2001, people saying ‘I remember it was 4 years that girls didn’t go to school or I think it was a year after they got into power’. So when the Taliban returned in 2021 and reinstated this barbaric ban, I knew I had to start counting, to ensure this time, every day is remembered. It has now been over 1,144 days, and each one is a painful reminder of a basic human right that is denied to 20 million women and girls. No one should have to live through this twice, yet here we are—with mothers who were once forbidden from school now watching their own daughters suf...