ANKARA — An estimated 2.4 million Afghan girls remain barred from secondary education five years after the Taliban returned to power, UNESCO said on Tuesday, calling for the immediate and unconditional restoration of girls' and women's access to education.
Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and women are formally prohibited from secondary and higher education, UNESCO said. The restrictions have remained in place despite repeated international calls for their reversal.
Hoda Jaberian, UNESCO's programme coordinator for education in emergencies, said the five-year exclusion represented almost an entire secondary-school cycle for affected girls and had reversed significant gains made in Afghanistan's education system.
“Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls and women are formally banned from secondary and higher education,” Jaberian said in a video news briefing, according to the agency.
UNESCO said nearly 1 million girls were enrolled in secondary education in Afghanistan by 2021, after two decades of expansion in access to schooling. Secondary schools for girls were closed in March 2022, several months after the Taliban seized power, and women were subsequently barred from universities in December that year.
The Taliban has described the restrictions as temporary and has defended its policies as being consistent with its interpretation of Islamic law and Afghan culture. Taliban authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to Reuters.
UNESCO warned that the education restrictions could have consequences extending well beyond schooling. It estimates that the ban on female secondary and higher education could contribute to about 600,000 women leaving the workforce by 2066 and result in cumulative income losses of about $9.6 billion.
The restrictions are also adding to pressure on Afghanistan's education system, UNESCO said. The agency estimates the country could face a shortage of more than 11,000 qualified female teachers by 2030, while more than 2 million primary-school-age children are already out of school for reasons other than the restrictions on girls and women.
UNESCO said more than 90% of 10-year-olds in Afghanistan cannot read a simple text and that the country's national literacy rate stands at about 37%. Nearly half of schools also lack basic facilities including water, sanitation or heating, it said.
Despite the restrictions, UNESCO said it continues to support community-based education, literacy and skills-development programmes, including classes held in community spaces and private homes.
“While the restriction remains, we cannot abandon Afghan learners,” Jaberian said, reiterating UNESCO's call for the restoration of girls' and women's right to secondary and higher education.
