The last five years have been devastating for girls and women. Not only does education end in the sixth grade for all girls but their ability to work or even move around the country is increasingly restricted.
During the last few decades, girls and women have achieved much, then had those rights taken away, then had them restored and then again removed. I was one of the many girls who was sometimes deprived of the rights to attend school as a refugee, and who was deprived of the right to attend school during my adolescence under the previous rule of the Taliban.
As an education activist, I established a secret girls’ school during the era of the previous Taliban regime. Then, with the establishment of the republican system, I was able to continue my higher education to the master’s level and work on girls’ education in higher education and girls’ education programs. Between 2001-2021, Afghanistan once again became an active member of the international community and committed to United Nations Human rights principles. The constitution recognized the equal rights of women and men in all social and political spheres and women and girls achieved historic gain during these two decades, particularly in access to education. All that was lost when the Taliban returned to power.
Writing about this catastrophe, which could have lasting effects on Afghanistan’s development and future, is a moral responsibility. I attempt to examine the impact of political instability on fluctuations in girls’ access to education. Even before the previous period of Taliban rule, Afghanistan was in a catastrophic position regarding access to education for the general population, particularly girls. With the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 1996, access to education for girls reached its lowest level in primary and zero in higher education.
By 2016, this progressive increase in girls’ access to higher education had reached 22.8 percent. According to the Ministry of Higher Education’s internal reports, by 2020, girls’ access to higher education had reached 28 percent in public universities and 21 percent in private universities. Those shares exceeded targets set by the government.
The government systematically removed barriers to girls accessing higher education. By 2020, 19 girls’ dormitories had been constructed at major universities, enabling girls to choose their desired fields of study in provinces across the country.
Starting in 2018, for four years, 6,850 seats in priority fields were allocated exclusively for female applicants in the university entrance examination. A policy to prevent and respond to sexual harassment in higher education institutions was developed and implemented, and at least 30 percent of scholarships were allocated to female professors and students to compensate for the barriers that had deprived girls of their right to education during the years of war and instability. By 2020, one fifth of faculty members were female.
Those initiatives and gains ended in August 2021. By order of the Taliban, women have been banned from higher education, thereby reducing all those statistics of female participation to zero. The result is a catastrophe that will affect Afghanistan for generations to come.
1. Increase in underage/forced marriages
Exactly 12 days after the final withdrawal of US-led forces in September 2021, the first decree against girls’ education was issued. On September 12, education for girls above the sixth grade was banned until further notice, and subsequently, in April 2022, girls were also banned from taking the university entrance examination and attending universities until further notice.
The decrees against women were not limited to education. The Taliban have issued more than 100 decrees, affecting the rights and freedoms of women and girls in all aspects of social and political life.
Even before the fall of the republican system, women’s rights and girls’ access to education had not been institutionalized in Afghanistan’s traditional society as they should have been.Marrying girls and placing them under the protection of a man is one of the common solutions to prioritize their security. Underage and forced marriages increased even in the first months after the Taliban once again took control of Afghanistan. According to a UNICEF report published in November 2021, 28 percent of girls had been forced to marry before reaching the age of 18. In subsequent years, this This figure has been moving toward the child marriage rate of 62 percent, experienced during the previous Taliban rule.
One consequence of such child marriages is the increase in maternal and child mortality during childbirth. Afghanistan ranks first among Asian and global countries in maternal mortality during childbirth. According to a survey by the United Nations OCHA conducted in 2024 and published in July 2026, an estimated 638 maternal deaths occurred for every 100,000 births in Afghanistan.
2. Shortage of female specialists, particularly in the health sector
Since the Taliban returned to power in Aug 2021, female health workers have been deprived of the right to participate in the exit examination. These restrictions have further increased the shortage of female health workers, which was already below the ideal level even during the republican period. UNICEF has warned that Afghanistan could lose 5,400 female health workers by 2030 and 9,600 by 2035.
Officials of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice have played a significant role in restricting women’s participation in the health sector. Female health workers are required to have a male family member accompany them when going to work, attending training seminars, and even while performing their duties. Requiring two people to perform a single role has increased costs for the health sector, otherwise without the accompaniment of men, even this limited participation is not possible.
3. Irreparable economic loss
Afghanistan is the only country in the world where women and girls are officially excluded from formal education, employment, and most of the economy. United Nations assessments show that due to restrictions on women’s education and employment alone, Afghanistan loses US$84 million in economic output annually.
All these factors have come together to create a psychological environment in which the majority of the generation educated during the two decades of the republic now sees their dreams of participating in Afghanistan’s future destroyed. Many have decided to leave Afghanistan in order to survive and take advantage of opportunities not available inside the country.
1. The risk of normalizing girls’ exclusion from education
UNESCO warns in its report that four million girls will be deprived of continuing their education above the sixth grade by 2030.
There is no space for civil protests against such bans. Restrictions on civil protest by women and girls were imposed from the very first days of Taliban rule, but with the publication of Taliban police law on August 22, 2026, these restrictions became legally recognized. Under the 2026 law, the Taliban have banned the holding of any kind of demonstration in Afghanistan. In such an environment, global silence and indifference are normalizing, day by day, girls’ absence from schools and universities.
4. Ineffective educational alternatives
A stream of organizations and institutions outside the country have begun operating to fill the void left by girls’ classrooms, including online schools and universities. But the reality is not as promising as these organizations portray it in their reports. Access to the internet is an unattainable phenomenon for many girls in Afghanistan, and increasingly scarce for the general population. According to the Afghanistan Digital report, 11.3 million people have access to the internet, most of whom are in urban areas, while 72.3 percent of the country’s population lives in rural areas.
What Afghan girls expect from international community
1. Invest more in community-based schools. Community-based schools in Afghanistan are a successful experience. Even during the ongoing conflicts during the republican period, these classes were able to play a significant role in providing girls with access to education from within their homes. Since these classes are located within communities and communities’ homes, they have the potential to receive support and can remain largely out of the Taliban’s sight. These classes can serve as both an alternative to online education and to closed schools, allowing girls to study beyond the sixth grade. These classes provide girls with opportunities for real interaction and can be very effective in reducing the long-term consequences of isolation.
2. Compensate for the ban on higher education. Establishing special allocations for Afghan female applicants in educational scholarships will help Afghan girls living outside their country to attend school and university.
3. Prioritizing the people, particularly women and girls, in diplomatic talks with the Taliban. Transparent dialogue by world actors can reduce the days of suffering for Afghan women and girls. Statements aren’t enough. International parties must prioritize the rights of Afghans, especially women and girls, when talking to the Taliban about issues such as migration, deportations to Afghanistan, or security concerns.
Arefa Paikar is a former head of gender equality and spokesperson for the ministry of higher education in Afghanistan.
