I lived through the first Taliban ban on Afghan girls’ schools, watching it happen again is heartbreaking

In August 2021, the Taliban regained control of Kabul and swiftly imposed a ban on girls attending school beyond Grade 6, a rule that persists to this day. Afghanistan has been the sole nation to formally deny secondary and higher education to girls and women. The consequences have been severe, with 2.2 million adolescent girls missing out on secondary education for nearly 1,800 days.

A 2026 Unicef study predicts Afghanistan could lose up to 20,000 women teachers and 5,400 healthcare workers by 2030 due to these restrictions, which have already cost the country an estimated $84 million annually. Since September 2025, the Taliban has prohibited Afghan women, including United Nations personnel, from entering UN offices.

In January 2026, women civil servants faced the removal of their minimal pay for remaining at home. Watching this unfold once more, a reporter recalls their experience as a young girl in 1996, the last time the Taliban ruled Kabul. What sets this second ban apart is not the repetition, but the world's failure to hold the Taliban accountable.

Everyone is aware of the plight of Afghan girls, yet their suffering continues unabated as the world remains largely indifferent. Despite risking arrest, torture, and even death, Afghan women have persisted in demanding their basic rights to education and employment. In February 2026, girls once again took to the streets of Kabul, demanding the same rights they've been denied for over two decades.

While some protests have been met with violence, others have shifted to quieter, underground schools run by Afghan women in their homes. These efforts have been crucial, as the main channel for engaging with the Taliban, the UN-led Doha process, has excluded women and Afghan civil society groups. The UN's approach to the Taliban has been a subject of debate, with some arguing that continued engagement, however incremental, is necessary.

However, two years after Australia, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands invoked Afghanistan's obligations under the UN convention against discrimination against women, no significant progress has been made. Despite invoking this mechanism against Afghanistan, the case has yet to reach the International Court of Justice. Civil society has criticized the slow pace of the initiative, but it remains a significant effort to hold the Taliban accountable for their discriminatory policies.