UNESCO: Taliban have deprived more than two million Afghan girls of secondary education

Elaha Wed Aug 2026 1 month ago 318

The organization stated on Tuesday, August 20, in a statement marking five years of educational deprivation for Afghan girls, that Afghanistan is the only country in the world where the education of girls and women after the primary level is officially prohibited. UNESCO has warned that the continuation of this situation could confront Afghanistan with "decades of lost capacity, more widespread poverty, and irreparable harm."


According to UNESCO, restrictions on women's education and employment have reduced their ability to support their families and participate in the economy, while increasing the risk of early marriage. The agency estimates that if the ban on secondary and higher education for women continues, by 2066 around 600,000 women will be excluded from entering the workforce, and Afghanistan will lose a total of $9.6 billion in income. UNESCO has once again called for the "immediate and unconditional restoration" of girls' and women's right to education.


The Taliban, after returning to power, had promised to provide opportunities for girls' education; however, girls' secondary schools and high schools remained closed in March of that same year, and in the fall of 2022, women's university education was also banned. The group has described these bans as temporary; however, after several years, they remain in place. The Taliban has also imposed extensive restrictions on women's work and movement, stating that it upholds women's rights in accordance with its interpretation of Islamic Sharia and Afghan culture.


UNESCO has warned that this situation will also exacerbate the shortage of female teachers and predicts that Afghanistan will face a shortage of more than 11,000 qualified female teachers by 2030.


UNICEF has also stated that restrictions on women's education and employment cause at least 5.3 billion afghanis—equivalent to about $84 million—annually to the country's economy and could deprive Afghanistan of around 20,000 female teachers and 5,400 female health workers by 2030. At the same time, more than 90 percent of 10-year-old children are unable to read a simple text, the literacy rate is around 37 percent, and nearly half of schools lack access to water, sanitation services, or adequate heating facilities.

UNESCO says that since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, around 2.4 million girls in Afghanistan have been deprived of secondary education. This United Nations agency has warned that the continued ban on education for girls and women will have severe long-term consequences for Afghanistan's economy and society.

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