Tabassum, 35, teaches at a private school in northern Afghanistan. Every day, she walks for about half an hour to get to work. Classes begin at 8 a.m., but she must arrive at school by 7:30 on days when she is assigned duty.
From 2019 to 2022, Tabassum taught at a university. When they were closed to women in December 2022, she was forced to stay at home for a while. She began offering private lessons at home, but this could not replace a regular job and a steady income.
“When the universities closed, I became unemployed, like so many other women. Life cannot go on when you stay at home without an income. I had to find work at a private school, keep myself occupied and earn money,” Tabassum tells Zan Times.
Tabassum teaches at a school that has several branches in the city centre and surrounding districts, she explains. It admits girls from kindergarten through to grade six and boys up to grade nine. Despite the school’s expansion, the salaries paid to women teachers do not reflect the volume of work they do or the responsibilities they carry.
“We are busy from the morning until classes finish. Our job is not just teaching. We have to look after the students, maintain order in the classroom, and carry out other tasks assigned by the administration,” she says. “Despite all this, our salaries are very low.”
Tabassum says that at her school, newly hired teachers spend their first month working without pay. It is called a probationary period. After that, their salaries are delayed to ensure they stay at the school. Though regular salary payments begin in the third month, the rest is withheld. If they leave before completing a year, they may lose that money. This policy applies regardless of whether a teacher has years of experience or is just starting out.
She earns 6,000 afghani a month. Other teachers interviewed by Zan Times say they are paid between 4,000 and 6,000 afghani for six hours of teaching a day. Meanwhile, a 50-kilogram sack of flour costs nearly 2,000 afghani.
Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, women’s labour force participation has fallen from 16.5 percent in 2020 to 5.1 percent in 2026. The International Labour Organization linked this decline to restrictions on women’s employment and their exclusion from education. Teaching at private schools remains one of the few employment opportunities available to women. But the work comes with a range of challenges, including a ban on women teachers teaching boys’ classes, scrutiny of educational content, salary deductions, and the absence of a clear legal framework to protect their ’ labour rights.
As the Taliban constrict the work opportunities available to women, teaching is one that still employs large numbers of women in Afghanistan. Zan Times investigated the conditions facing women teachers at private schools by talking to ten of women educators in six provinces across Afghanistan. The reporters were repeatedly told of missing or delayed salaries, heavy workloads, and schools that do a poor job of educating their students.
In Afghanistan’s private schools, the women still teaching at the primary level include former university lecturers, teachers dismissed from public schools, and young women whose own higher education was interrupted. For many, teaching is not a choice made from among several career options but rather is their only means of earning an income and covering living expenses at a time when employment opportunities for women are shrinking by the day.
Nikbakht, who holds a master’s degree from the University of Tehran, has devoted three decades of her life to education. She now teaches at a private school in Kabul.
“Sometimes they don’t pay our salaries on time. They say the families haven’t paid their children’s fees, so our salaries are delayed too,” she explains. The school administration has told her that delays in paying teachers are caused by the financial difficulties faced by students’ families. Teachers, it says, must wait until the fees have been paid in full. “But we have worked the entire month, and we need our salaries at the end of it. Living expenses cannot wait. Our families cannot go hungry until the students’ fees have been collected.”
According to Nikbakht, in classes from kindergarten to grade four, a single teacher is sometimes responsible for every student in the classroom. The teacher must deliver lessons while also supervising the children — a responsibility that demands considerable time and attention, particularly in the lower grades.
Despite this workload, taking leave at a private school does not necessarily mean getting paid time off. Nikbakht says teachers can take leave in certain circumstances. Maternity leave, for example, lasts about 15 to 20 days, while marriage leave is limited to just three days.
“Teachers put up with the pressure of the job because even this small salary matters. When you are in need and cannot find another job, you have no choice but to endure it. We accept humiliation and exploitation at work for a crust of bread,” she says.
Summer leave is subject to different conditions. Sadaf, 24, teaches at a private school in Kabul. She says teachers are entitled to 10 days of summer leave.
“We have leave, but what is the point of leave without pay? If we take more than the allotted days, our salaries are reduced,” she explains. Sadaf’s experience with the male principal at her previous school also shows that challenging working conditions can come at a financial cost. “Private schools are businesses, and because they pay taxes to the Taliban, there is little oversight and no clear law in place,” she notes.
Sadaf, who has taught at several private schools, says she repeatedly complained about working hours and the lack of opportunities to rest. Instead of addressing her concerns, the principal treated her in a humiliating manner. She eventually resigned and never received the salary that had been withheld from her.
“When we complain about our working conditions, there is no one to support us,” complains Sadaf. “If the principal says something, we have to do it. If we refuse, we may lose our jobs and the salary we are entitled to.”
Sadaf says her situation is not unique. In conversations with friends and acquaintances who teach at other private schools, she has heard similar accounts. “Things are pretty much the same in all private schools, and elsewhere they may be even worse than what we have experienced,” she says.
During the two decades of the republic, the number of private schools grew as they were seen as an alternative to state-run schools. They attracted families seeking better educational services and more individual attention for their children.
Lida, an employee of an international organization who sends her two younger sisters to a private school in Mazar-e-Sharif, says she chose private education because public schools lacked specialized teachers and did not provide sufficient attention to students.
However, Tabassum, the private school teacher in northern Afghanistan, acknowledges that the expansion of the private school sector has not always translated into quality education.
“Some parents still complain about the quality of teaching, particularly in mathematics, and about the failure to meet their expectations for their children’s education and upbringing,” she said.
Halima, 27, teaches English and Turkish to fourth grade students at a private school in northern Afghanistan. She has been teaching for three years, but says that during this time, neither her salary nor her working conditions have been satisfactory. She also says that restrictions imposed on women have made the teaching environment more difficult.
Halima says women teachers at her school earn 5,000 afghani a month, while some male teachers who teach higher grades receive around 8,000 afghani or more. She says this disparity exists even though women teach longer hours and also carry additional administrative responsibilities.
“A male teacher might teach for two hours a day, while a female teacher might teach for five hours and still have to do other school duties. Yet women are paid less,” says Halima. She says that when a male teacher’s salary is reduced, he can complain and even threaten to quit. The school management may increase a male teacher’s salary to prevent him from leaving. “Women do not have that kind of power,” she states. “Even if we say we will leave, it makes little difference, because they know that our employment opportunities are extremely limited and we have no other options.”
In addition to unequal pay, Halima describes restrictions imposed on women’s clothing and presence in schools. Women teachers are not allowed to teach while boys are present at school, she says, and must enter the school wearing a black chapan and a burqa.
“We always keep a burqa in our bags. When we hear that officials from the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice have come to inspect the school, we immediately take it out of our bags and put it on,” she says.
A few days ago, Halima was teaching when vice and virtue officials entered her classroom. They ordered her to leave, saying they wanted to question the students.
“I was terrified. Without saying a word, I left the classroom,” says Halima. Fear of losing her job has also affected what she teaches. According to Halima, teachers have been instructed not to teach sections of Dari language textbooks that discuss freedom, independence, and the homeland. “The fear of losing our jobs has forced these conditions upon us. We have no choice but to accept them and carry on,” she explains.
Alongside low salaries and additional responsibilities, women teachers complain that the cost of getting to work is also eating into their meagre incomes. Arzu*, a teacher at a private school in Kabul, highlights the cost of the uniform she must wear At her school, the uniform costs 800 afghani; at other schools, she says, the price can reach 1,000 afghani.
Arzu’s work-related expenses do not end with her uniform. Shoes, a headscarf, and other required items must also be paid for out of teachers’ own pockets. She estimates that the total can reach 5,000 afghani or more — a substantial portion of their modest annual salaries.
“These expenses are compulsory for women teachers, while some schools do not require male teachers to wear a specific uniform,” Arzu notes.
Rokhshana, 27, has been teaching for more than three years and has worked at her current school in Kabul for less than a year. She says she chose teaching because employment opportunities for women are limited and she lacks the educational qualifications required for other jobs. Teaching allows her to maintain some financial independence and cover her personal expenses as well as part of her family’s needs.
Private school operators are unapologetic about the financial discrimination faced by women teachers. The head of one private school in northern Afghanistan acknowledges the pay disparity between male and female teachers. At his school, the highest monthly salary for women teachers is 5,000 afghani, compared with 10,000 afghani for men.
He attributes that pay difference to the greater number of women applying to teaching positions, as well as disparities in educational qualifications and the fact that men teach subjects such as mathematics and chemistry in higher grades.. The school also pays the Taliban approximately 60,000 to 70,000 afghani in taxes every three months.
Meanwhile, the number of women teaching at the primary level has fallen from nearly 73,000 in 2022 to around 66,000 in 2024, according to a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). It states that continued restrictions on girls’ education and women’s employment could leave Afghanistan facing a shortage of nearly 20,000 women teachers and 5,400 female health workers by 2030.
Unicef has warned that the decline in the number of women teachers could further restrict girls’ access to education, as the presence of women teachers plays an important role in increasing the likelihood that girls will attend school and continue their studies.
For Tabassum, quitting her job would be a hard decision given that employment opportunities for women are so limited. This private school is a place where she is expected to inspire girls and encourage them to study, even as she herself has no certainty about when her next salary will be paid.
Names have been changed to protect the identity of the interviewees. Saima Soltani is a freelance journalist. Tamiris Tamga and Simin Daneshjoo are pseudonyms used by Zan Times women journalists.
Hura Omar, Atousa Azar, Sofia Malek, Raha Malik, Tarana Mohammadi, and Goharshad, all writing under pseudonyms, contributed reporting.
