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Five years after the Taliban returned to control in Afghanistan, an estimated 2.4 million girls are still being denied secondary education, reversing years of hard-won gains and shutting an entire generation of young women out of school.
UNESCO says Afghanistan stands alone as the only nation in the world where girls and women are officially banned from studying beyond primary school. On Tuesday, the U.N. agency renewed its demand for the Taliban to restore their right to learn “immediately and unconditionally.”
The agency cautioned that the impact of Taliban rule extends well past education. Women have been pushed out of most paid work and public roles, while strict rules continue to limit their movement unless accompanied by a male guardian.
Afghan girls take part in a class at Tajrobawai Girls High School in Herat, Afghanistan, on Thursday, Nov. 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In its statement, UNESCO warned that women have been driven out of public life and that the outlook for girls growing up without education is becoming increasingly bleak.
The Taliban seized power again on Aug. 15, 2021, as U.S. and NATO troops completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of conflict.
Soon after taking control, the Taliban closed secondary schools to girls, then broadened its restrictions to universities, workplaces and other parts of public life.
Despite years of pressure from the United Nations, humanitarian groups, human rights advocates and several Islamic countries, the Taliban has refused to lift the education restrictions and has maintained that the issue is a domestic matter, according to The Associated Press.
The Taliban has refused to lift its education restrictions on girls and women despite longstanding international pressure. (© UNESCO/Navid Rahi)
The impact has been a dramatic reversal of the educational gains made by Afghan girls during the previous two decades.
While girls had severely limited access to schooling in 2001, nearly 1 million were enrolled in secondary education by 2021, according to UNESCO.
Five years later, an estimated 2.4 million girls are excluded from secondary education.
“Five years is not a temporary interruption in a child’s education,” Hoda Jaberian, UNESCO’s program coordinator for education in emergencies, said during a video news conference Tuesday, according to The AP. “It is clearly almost an entire secondary school cycle.”
UNESCO warned that denying education to girls while restricting women’s ability to work could deepen Afghanistan’s already severe economic problems.
Nearly half of Afghanistan’s population lives below the poverty line, according to UNESCO, which said preventing women from studying and working further limits their ability to support their families and contribute to the country’s economy.
The agency also warned that excluding girls from school can damage their mental and physical well-being and increase the risk of early marriage.
The effects could also reach Afghan boys.
UNESCO said the Taliban’s ban on female teachers teaching boys is worsening teacher shortages and undermining the quality of education across Afghanistan.
Women wear burqas in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 7, 2022. (Sayed Khodaiberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
With formal secondary and higher education closed to women and girls, UNESCO says it has turned to community-based education, literacy and skills development programs and psychosocial support to keep them learning.
Nearly 70,000 people have participated in UNESCO’s programs, with women accounting for 73% of the learners, according to the agency.
Some literacy and skills classes take place in community spaces and in the homes of facilitators with the knowledge of authorities, according to The AP. More than 1,000 literacy facilitators are involved, most of whom have been trained by UNESCO and its partners.
UNESCO said a recent study found evidence that its literacy and skills programs have helped increase household incomes and improve livelihoods.
The agency acknowledged, however, that such efforts cannot replace formal schooling.
“Afghanistan’s girls and women have the right to learn, to work, to move freely, and to shape their own futures,” UNESCO said, adding that “the world must not look away until their human rights are restored.”
UNESCO said it would continue working with local communities and partners to maintain alternative opportunities for Afghan women and girls while pressing for the education ban to be lifted.
“UNESCO continues to call for the immediate and unconditional restoration of girls and women’s right to secondary and higher education,” Jaberian said Tuesday. “It is not negotiable. It’s a basic human right and we reiterate that there is no substitute for this.”
