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The United Nations said on Tuesday that since the Taliban took back control of Afghanistan in 2021, about 2.4 million girls have been denied access to secondary education, calling for an end to this “discrimination.”
UNESCO urged the Taliban administration to immediately lift these restrictions, warning that the excluded population has grown by 200,000 in the past year alone and could reach nearly four million by 2030.
The UN agency condemned the policy as gender-based discrimination that reverses two decades of progress in educational access.
The secondary school ban—alongside prohibitions against women attending universities, visiting public spaces, and holding employment—has pushed Afghanistan’s wider education sector into a severe crisis.
UNESCO estimates the educational restrictions on women and girls will cost the national economy $9.6 billion by 2066.
Beyond policy barriers, damaged infrastructure, natural disasters, and the return of over seven million displaced Afghans since 2023 have strained local resources, leaving over half of primary school-age children out of school.
