UNESCO warns Afghanistan could lose a generation of professionals if ban on girls’ education continues

Résumé détaillé

A U.N. report, released in November, stated that the Taliban ban had excluded an estimated 2.4 million girls from secondary education, while no girls have enrolled in universities in 2026.

Editor's note: this story was translated from the original VOA Dari article.

Afghanistan risks losing a generation of future teachers, healthcare professionals and other skilled workers if girls and women remain barred from secondary and higher education, a U.N. official told VOA.

“Our message is very clear: Afghanistan cannot afford to lose another generation of learners,” Hoda Jaberian, UNESCO Program Coordinator for Education in Emergencies, said in an interview.

Jaberian called for efforts to bring girls and women back to school, strengthen Afghanistan’s education system and ensure all children “can fully exercise their basic human right to quality education.”

A U.N. report, released in November, stated that the Taliban ban had excluded an estimated 2.4 million girls from secondary education, while no girls have enrolled in universities in 2026.

After seizing power in 2021, the Taliban banned girls from secondary education, barred women from attending universities in December 2022 and from studying at medical institutions in December 2024.

In addition to banning girls from secondary and university education, the Taliban also imposed repressive restrictions on women, barring them from working in government agencies and non-government organizations, going to public parks, beauty salons and gyms, and traveling long distances without a close male relative.

The group has issued more than 100 decrees that curb women’s and girls’ rights and freedoms, including their right to get an education.

Jaberian said the first priority is to immediately reopen schools for girls.

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