Afghan girls can no longer go to school. For the boys who can, education has been replaced by radicalisation

Mohammad Rasool observed changes in his children's school curriculum right after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021. Initially, small alterations were noticed, such as the exclusion of historical figures like Amanullah Khan from the textbooks and the teachers' claim that these individuals did not contribute positively to Afghanistan.

Tragically, his daughters were barred from attending high school due to the Taliban's prohibition on girls' education, while his younger daughter and son continued their studies at a local primary school in Kandahar's southern province. The Taliban began incorporating terms like "jihad," "invaders," and "apostates" into the textbooks, describing their leaders as heroes and glorifying the war against the "infidel Americans."

Rasool expressed his concern about promoting violence among young minds and questioned the necessity of glorifying such ideals in a nation that has endured decades of conflict. Experts and educators attribute the transformation of textbooks and curriculum changes to the Taliban's goal of molding young minds to conform to their ideology.

However, the consequences of this education extend beyond radicalization; they also hinder children's prospects for future skills. The shortage of qualified teachers and schools led to a shift in focus towards religious subjects, diminishing exposure to essential subjects such as physics, biology, computer science, and English. Furthermore, the Taliban's expansion of madrassas, a well-established mechanism for spreading their fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, has resulted in the enrollment of over 3.65 million students, a significant increase from 5,000 registered madrassas in 2021.

The replacement of formal education with religious teachings in madrassas raises concerns about the long-term implications for Afghan society and security.