UNESCO: 2.4 million girls barred from school in Afghanistan
Five years after the Taliban returned to power, millions of Afghan girls remain excluded from secondary education. UNESCO warns of lasting social and economic consequences.
Around 2.4 million girls in Afghanistan have been denied access to secondary education since the Taliban's return to power in 2021, according to UNESCO. The figure has increased by approximately 200,000 since the previous year and may exceed nearly four million by 2030 if the ban continues. UNESCO's Hoda Jaberian noted that Afghanistan is the sole country where women face formal bans on secondary and higher education.
The Taliban took control on August 15, 2021, following the withdrawal of US and NATO forces after two decades of conflict. Initially, they assured the world that women would be allowed to continue their studies. However, secondary schools were closed to girls in March 2022, and women were barred from universities in December of the same year.
The Taliban claimed these measures were temporary, but they remain in effect. UNESCO emphasizes that the restrictions constitute a form of "gender apartheid." The agency calls for the immediate reinstatement of women and girls' rights to secondary and higher education, as progress made over the past two decades has been entirely undone.
Afghanistan had limited girls' access to education in 2001, with nearly one million girls enrolled in secondary education by 2021. However, the Taliban's restrictions have reversed this progress. The agency supports community-based education and literacy programs, often conducted in community spaces or homes. Excluding women from secondary and higher education could push 600,000 women out of the workforce by 2066, leading to cumulative income losses of 9.6 billion US dollars and increasing the risk of early marriages.
The ban is also exacerbating a shortage of female teachers, with Afghanistan projected to face a deficit of over 11,000 qualified female teachers by 2030. Many teachers have left the country, and those remaining are prohibited from teaching boys. This has left some pupils with unqualified male teachers or none at all. Afghanistan's education system faces challenges beyond the ban on girls' education, with over two million primary school children already out of school for various reasons.
Approximately 90% of 10-year-olds cannot read simple texts, and the national literacy rate is 37%. Many schools lack essential resources, with nearly half lacking water, sanitation, or heating. The system is further strained by the return of three million people to Afghanistan in 2025 alone, either voluntarily or forcibly. Over seven million have returned or been forced back since 2023.
Natural disasters have also contributed to the crisis, forcing around 1,000 schools to close since 2021.
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