• Former captain of Afghan girls’ robotics team breaks down in tears at UN General Assembly.
• Urged world leaders to unite and demand reopening of girls’ schools and protection of their rights.
• Malala Yousafzai chides heads of state for lack of action.

Somaya Faruqi, the former captain of the Afghan girls’ robotics team. They broke down in tears backstage after pleading with world leaders at the United Nations to protect women’s education. And also rights in Afghanistan a year after the Taliban took over.

“I was in the classroom last year, but this year there are no girls in the classroom.” They have left the classrooms and gone home. So it was too difficult to control myself, control my feelings,” Faruqi, 20, told Reuters.

Faruqi, who now attends Missouri University of Science and Technology, left Afghanistan in August of last year, when the Taliban took power and the US and its allies withdrew forces after a 20-year war.

She urged world leaders gathered in New York this week for the UN General Assembly’s high-level meeting to unite and demand the reopening of girls’ schools and the protection of their rights.

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“This week, you are all here to propose solutions to transform education for all,” Faruqi said. “But you must not forget those who have been left behind, those who are not fortunate enough to be in school at all.” “Show your support for me and the millions of Afghan girls.”

Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by a Taliban gunman as she left school in Pakistan in 2012, chastised heads of state for their inaction.

“Most of you know exactly what needs to be done. You must not make small, stingy, and short-term pledges, but must commit to upholding the right to a full education and closing the funding gap once and for all,” Yousafzai said on Monday.

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