2.4 million Afghan girls shut out of secondary school five years after Taliban takeover, UNESCO says

Five years of exclusion

An estimated 2.4 million Afghan girls remain excluded from secondary education five years after the Taliban seized power on August 15, 2021, UNESCO reported on Tuesday. The figure has risen by about 200,000 since last year's count of 2.2 million, and the agency warns the number could approach four million by 2030 if the ban stays in place. UNESCO's program coordinator for education in emergencies, Hoda Jaberian, delivered the findings at a video press conference from Paris.

Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls and women are formally banned from secondary and higher education.

How the restrictions took hold

The Taliban initially assured the international community that women would be allowed to continue studying after taking power as US and NATO forces withdrew. But secondary schools were closed to girls in March 2022, and women were barred from universities in December that year. The Taliban described both measures as temporary, but they remain in force. The authorities say they respect women's rights in line with their interpretation of Islamic law and Afghan culture, and have insisted the issue is a domestic matter.

Reversal of two decades of progress

Girls had very limited access to schooling in 2001. By 2021, nearly one million were enrolled in secondary education. UNESCO says the restrictions have reversed that progress entirely. The ban on women teaching boys has stripped qualified staff from the system, and the agency projects a shortfall of more than 11,000 qualified female teachers by 2030. At the primary level, more than two million children are out of class, and 90% of 10-year-olds cannot read a simple text, bringing national literacy down to 37%.

Broader crisis and economic cost

The education system faces compounding pressures. Nearly half of schools lack water, sanitation or heating, and natural disasters have forced about a thousand schools to close in five years. The return of more than seven million Afghans since 2023, voluntary or forced, has added demographic strain. UNESCO estimates about $9.6 billion in lost income by 2066 as educated women exit the workforce. The UN has described the broader system of restrictions on women, including limits on employment, movement, and access to public parks, gyms and beauty salons, as "gender apartheid." Russia is the only country to formally recognize the Taliban administration.

UNESCO's alternative programs

UNESCO continues to support community-based education, literacy and skills development programs across Afghanistan. Classes take place in community spaces and facilitators' homes, with the knowledge of authorities. More than 1,000 literacy facilitators, most trained by UNESCO and its partners, are involved. Over 69,000 people have participated in these alternative learning programs since 2021, 70% of them girls and women. The organization stresses, however, that these offerings cannot replace formal access to schooling.

While the restriction remains, we cannot abandon Afghan learners.