‘Child marriage hinders girls from reaching their potential’

Twins Aminata and Ramatoulaye Diaw have impressed Senegal by achieving their baccalaureate at the age of only 13, a new record in the African nation.

The Taliban say they will not stop girls from going to school, but experts say it is hard to trust them. For young girls, who have just started school and had never seen the Taliban, it is a difficult situation.

Even though the Taliban's reliance on foreign aid money could moderate their stance toward women, higher education for girls and women in the country still faces many challenges.

With the Taliban now in power for more than 100 days, women and girls in Afghanistan are still waiting to hear officially if they can return to work and school. Also, how do we flip the script when it comes to gender violence and teach men and boys to act appropriately? Annette Young talks to Michael Conroy, the founder of Men at Work, an UK organisation which offers training programs to foster violence-free relationships for men and boys.

A group with alleged ties to the "Islamic State" has "enslaved and sexually abused" hundreds of women and girls in Mozambique over the past three years, Human Rights Watch said.

The Taliban has said they want to allow girls to continue attending school. That does not mean, however, an education in the Western sense of the word.

In an interview with DW, Oscar-winning Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy spoke about her new animated film, "Sitara: Let Girls Dream," on the issue of child marriage. She says that some 12 million girls in the world are not able to reach their potential due to early marriages.

Six months after the Taliban retook Afghanistan, FRANCE 24 spoke to former Afghan president Hamid Karzai, who remains in the country. Karzai strongly criticised the Biden administration's recent decision to unfreeze Afghan assets but divide the funds between aid to Afghanistan and victims of the 9/11 attacks, saying the funds "belong to the Afghan people". He also said he believed the Taliban would eventually allow girls to return to school, since doing so is "absolutely necessary for the well-being" of Afghanistan.

A priest who abused children and adolescents over many years has been handed a 12-year jail sentence by a Cologne court. The archdiocese where he worked has denied any responsibility.

Forced marriage is illegal in Burkina Faso, but remains common and often involves girls under 18. A shelter in the city of Kaya offers an escape for girls keen to continue their education

The Taliban has sparked outrage and concern among rights groups, after it reversed stance and closed secondary schools for girls across Afghanistan. Thousands of young students were sent home, confused and worried about their future.

GirlZOffMute's Angel Onyi Unigwe, a well-known child actress in Nigeria, has been figuring out who is bullying girls in schools. Some teen girls from various schools in Lagos blame boys and teachers. They told her that bullying had affected their self-esteem. Have you ever been bullied, and if so, how did you manage it?