2.4 million girls in Afghanistan are deprived of education - UNESCO

In Afghanistan, 2.4 million girls are missing out on secondary school, and UNESCO has called on the Taliban government to lift restrictions on female education, Al Jazeera reported.

The number of girls out of secondary school in the country has increased by 200,000 since 2025. By 2030, this number could reach nearly 4 million. Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and women are banned from secondary school and university. The UN has called the situation in the country “gender apartheid” due to the many restrictions imposed on women.

In March 2022, girls were excluded from secondary schools, and in December of the same year, women were excluded from universities. This comes just months after the US and its allies withdrew from Afghanistan after 20 years of military involvement and the Taliban returned to power.

The Taliban administration has also banned women from teaching boys. As a result, qualified female teachers in the education system have been replaced by men. UNESCO predicts a shortage of more than 11,000 qualified female teachers by 2030.

The UN says that the ban on girls and women from education exacerbates a number of problems that are already straining Afghanistan’s education system and economy. Many educational institutions are inadequately equipped. Nearly half of schools lack running water, sanitation or heating. Nearly a thousand schools have closed in the past five years due to natural disasters.

At the primary level, more than 2 million children are out of school. Ninety percent of 10-year-olds cannot read or understand simple text, which has led to a literacy rate of 37 percent in the country.

The Taliban government has ignored global calls, including those from Muslim countries, to lift the ban on girls’ education.

Some of the restrictions imposed on women in Afghanistan since the Taliban came to power include:

* Afghan women are not allowed to work in UN offices;

* Men are not allowed to sew women’s clothes;

* Women are not allowed to see male doctors;

* Women are not allowed to go to the hospital alone;

* Women are not allowed to visit parks;

* Families and women are not allowed to enter restaurants with parks or green areas;

* Advertising that features women’s voices is broadcast;

* Women are not allowed to enter government offices without a veil;

* Women are not allowed to bargain with vendors.