UNESCO: 2.4 Million Girls in Afghanistan Excluded from Attending Secondary Schools

Education experts see the findings as confirmation of what international observers have been documenting since the takeover in August 2021. Girls from the age of twelve are forbidden from entering secondary schools; access to higher education and to certain professional fields is also severely restricted. UNESCO's estimate refers to the number of girls who were already enrolled in a secondary school and had to leave it after the takeover, as well as girls who are now successfully completing primary school.

Impact on Society

Background

International Reactions

The situation of girls and women in Afghanistan is a central issue for the United Nations. UN bodies, including the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, have repeatedly pointed to the consequences of the education bans. UNESCO coordinates programs together with UNICEF and other partners in which girls receive lessons in informal learning centers or through digital channels. However, aid workers point out that such offerings do not constitute a full replacement for regular school instruction and are often limited by financial constraints and security risks.

Impact on Society

Demands on the Taliban Government

UNESCO warns that the exclusion of entire cohorts has far-reaching consequences: without a completed secondary school education, opportunities for employment, health care, and political participation decline. Several Afghan women's rights organizations, including representatives who speak under pseudonyms, also report an increase in psychological stress among girls and young women who have been growing up without regular instruction for years. The country's economic development is also being impaired by the lack of education among a large part of the population.

International Reactions

International donor countries and UN organizations have for years been demanding a return to school instruction for girls. UNESCO announced that it would continue to refine its data collection and, together with Afghan experts in exile and aid workers on the ground, produce realistic estimates. At the same time, the organization called on governments and donors to more strongly fund alternative education offerings so that the affected girls can at least acquire reading, writing, and basic arithmetic skills.

Concrete Figures and Methodology

UNESCO explained that its estimate is based on data on enrollment rates before 2021 as well as on current surveys on the number of primary school graduates. Since the Taliban authorities do not publish complete official statistics, the organization works with samples and surveys in provinces where informal instruction takes place. The estimate is described as conservative: the actual number of affected girls could be higher if internally displaced persons and families in remote regions were fully included.

Demands on the Taliban Government

Human rights organizations and UN bodies are appealing to the Taliban leadership to lift the education bans on girls. UNESCO reiterated that access to education is a human right and must not be subject to political negotiations. As long as schools remain closed to girls, sustainable stabilization of Afghanistan will not be possible, the organization warned.