BURSTFollowing 9/11, U.S. President George W. Bush signed a joint resolution authorizing the use of force against those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks. This later became the legal basis for the Bush administration’s decision to take measures against terrorism, including the invasion of Afghanistan.
Two decades later, with the death toll rising to over 176,000 people, including Afghan civilians, military personnel and American forces, the U.S. withdrew from the Central Asian country, leaving behind a power vacuum.
In late August 2021, the last U.S. military forces departed Afghanistan, leaving it under Taliban rule. Since then, organizations and non-profits around the world have criticized the ruling authorities for enforcing a strict interpretation of Islamic law that severely restricts human rights, especially women’s access to education and jobs.
Among those organizations is Canada’s Right to Learn Afghanistan, which organizes the Red Pashmina Walk in cities across the country every year to shed light on the plight of Afghan women and girls.
“The purpose is to raise awareness about their situation, the human rights violations they’re living under and ask for people’s solidarity,” said executive director Lauryn Oates at the 2026 march in James Bay on May 31.
Lauryn Oates (left) is the executive director of Right to Learn Afghanistan. (Olivier Laurin/Victoria News)
The walk, first held in Peterborough, Ont., in 2010, has grown into an annual event held in nearly 10 cities across Canada. Hosted in Victoria for the past seven years, Oates said it also aims to emphasize the organization’s primary goal of promoting the right to education.
“We’re trying to restore access to education through virtual means,” she said. “But we’re trying to get Canadians involved in this work and to care about what’s going on there.”
To help draw attention to their cause, Oates explained the group uses red pashminas – shawls traditionally made from cashmere originating in Persia – as the march’s main symbol.
“What most people don’t realize is how much demand there is for education among women and girls and how many of them are taking great risks to circumvent the restrictions,” she said. “They’re trying to find their way into online programs like ours. For them, education is truly a life-and-death matter.”
While raising awareness and funds are the walk’s main goals, advocacy and political lobbying remain central to Right to Learn Afghanistan.
Bringing attention to what she calls a “gender apartheid,” Oates said Afghanistan’s system is built on inequality, making life dangerous for women. She argued the lack of accountability from the international community has enabled extremist groups.
Once extremist groups take root, such as Boko Haram in West Africa or al-Shabaab in Somalia, they often contribute to economic collapse, pushing many educated women out of work, worsening poverty, and fueling a man-made hunger crisis.
In light of this, Oates and her team continue to push for the Taliban government not to be recognized as the legitimate authority in Afghanistan.
Instead, they argued the priority should be large-scale investment in education, including improvements to technical infrastructure such as satellite internet, to make online learning more accessible and affordable.
“We really think it’s an issue of global concern that everyone should be focused on,” she said. “Our number one recommendation is to invest in education at scale. That’s the most meaningful, important thing the international community can do right now.”
For more information about Right to Learn Afghanistan, visit righttolearn.ca.