The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization reports that the Taliban have barred an estimated 2.4 million Afghan girls from secondary education since returning to power in 2021. As Afghanistan approaches the fifth anniversary of that return, international watchdogs warn that the ongoing bans on women and girls risk permanent damage to the country’s workforce and school system.
UNESCO Figures Highlight Widespread Exclusion and Lost Potential
As the de facto authorities prepare to mark five years since their return to power, international bodies continue to document the sweeping impact of restrictions on female education. According to Reuters, Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls and women are formally barred from secondary and higher education. When the Taliban regained control in 2021 amid the withdrawal of the United States and its allies, officials repeatedly assured the international community that women would remain free to study.
Despite those assurances, secondary schools were closed for girls in March 2022, followed by a ban on women studying in universities in December 2022. While the Taliban described both measures as temporary, the restrictions remain fully enforced. UNESCO noted that the ongoing prohibitions risks condemning Afghanistan to decades of lost potential, deepening poverty, and irreversible harm
as the exclusion stretches into its fifth year.
Hoda Jaberian, the UNESCO programme coordinator for education in emergencies, has discussed the impact of these restrictions on the education system.
Teacher Shortages and Cracking Infrastructure Across Afghan Classrooms
The bans on female higher education are compounding an already severe shortage of qualified educators. UNESCO estimates that Afghanistan will face a deficit of more than 11,000 qualified female teachers by 2030, a trend driven by educators fleeing the country and the active prohibition on women continuing in the profession.
Hoda Jaberian, the UNESCO programme coordinator for education in emergencies, emphasized the cascading effect of these employment bans during a briefing. Many teachers have left the country … and those who were in the system are banned from continuing teaching,
Jaberian stated, adding that the restrictions have resulted in boys being taught by unqualified male teachers
because the system is left with unqualified male teachers or no teachers at all.
Physical conditions inside Afghan schools further strain the educational environment. UNESCO reports that over 90 percent of 10-year-olds cannot read a simple text, pulling national literacy down to 37 percent. Nearly half of all schools lack basic water, sanitation, or heating, while natural disasters including earthquakes and floods have forced the closure of 1,000 schools since 2021. These pressures were heightened in 2025 alone, when 3 million people returned to the country either forcibly or voluntarily, placing additional strain on overcrowded and underequipped classrooms where more than 2 million primary school children are already out of school for reasons unrelated to the gender bans.
Long-Term Economic Consequences and Daily Realities Under Taliban Rule
The economic toll of the education restrictions extends far into the future. UNESCO projects that barring female secondary and higher education could cause 600,000 Afghan women to leave the workforce by 2066, resulting in $9.6 billion in cumulative income losses while significantly increasing the risk of early marriage.
Away from institutional statistics, daily life for citizens under the administration involves constant surveillance and economic precarity. One former soldier in Herat described keeping her bags permanently packed near the door in case she and her family are forced to flee the country after multiple security summons and death threats.
Similarly, journalists operating in northern provinces under pseudonyms navigate an expanding network of security cameras and strict movement rules, often requiring male guardians and the full veil just to conduct basic interviews. Despite repeated requests for comment from international press on these human rights concerns, the Taliban-run Ministry of Education did not immediately respond.
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