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3 Years From the Taliban’s Takeover of Kabul, 1.4 Million Afghan Girls Are Banned From School
Three years after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, the country is the only one in the world where secondary and higher education is strictly forbidden to girls. A total of 1.4 million Afghan girls have been deliberately deprived of schooling over that time, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
“Today, Afghanistan is the only country in the world to prohibit access to education for girls over the age of 12 and for women. This situation must concern us all,” UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said. “The right to education cannot be negotiated or compromised. The international community must remain fully mobilized to obtain the unconditional reopening of schools and universities to Afghan girls and women.”
The 1.4 million girls represent an increase of 300,000 since UNESCO’s previous count in April 2023.
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If the girls who were already out of school before the bans were introduced were added, nearly 2.5 million girls in the country are not being educated. That represents 80% of Afghan school-age girls, UNESCO said in a press release.
In just three years, the Taliban — “the de facto authorities,” according to UNESCO — have almost wiped out two decades of education development in Afghanistan.
“The future of an entire generation is now in jeopardy,” according to UNESCO.
Impact on primary education
Although girls’ education is still permitted under the age of 12, the number of pupils enrolled in primary education has also fallen since 2021. Afghanistan had 5.7 million girls and boys in primary school in 2022, compared with 6.8 million in 2019, according to UNESCO.
