Since the Taliban retook power in 2021, at least 1.4 million Afghan girls have been denied secondary education, according to UNESCO.
UNESCO, in a statement on Thursday stated that in just three years, the de facto authorities have almost wiped out two decades of steady progress for education in Afghanistan, and the future of an entire generation is now in jeopardy.
This comes as the Taliban marks three years since seizing Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, on August 15, 2021.
Women have experienced restrictions in public life since the Taliban retook power, including being denied access to parks, gyms, and numerous employment, as well as secondary and higher education.
The United Nations has referred to the restrictions as “gender apartheid.”
There are now nearly 2.5 million girls deprived of their right to education, representing 80 percent of Afghan school-age girls, UNESCO said. This represents an increase of 300,000 since the previous count carried out by the UN agency in April 2023.
Access to primary education has also declined significantly, with 1.1 million fewer girls and boys attending school, according to the organisation.
It attributed the reduction to the government’ decision to prohibit female teachers from teaching boys, as well as a lack of motivation for parents to bring their children to school.
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay urged the international community to remain mobilized “to obtain the unconditional reopening of schools and universities to Afghan girls and women.”
International aid organisations have warned that millions of Afghans struggle in one of the world’s largest and most complex humanitarian crises, three years after the change in power.
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