KABUL, Afghanistan — The United Nations sharply criticized Taliban for continuing to bar girls from secondary education for a fourth consecutive year, warning that the ongoing ban will deepen the country’s humanitarian, economic and human rights crises.
“The new school year has started in Afghanistan, but yet again with a glaring and damaging absence of girls from the classrooms,” said Roza Otunbayeva, the U.N. Secretary-General’s special representative for Afghanistan and head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). “This is not only harming their future prospects, but the peace and prosperity of all Afghans.”
According to the U.N. Children’s Fund (Unicef), the policy has already affected more than 2.2 million girls, including 400,000 this year alone. If the ban remains in place through 2030, the number of Afghan girls deprived of education is projected to surpass four million.
Otunbayeva said she was “deeply disappointed” by the Taliban’s continued refusal to heed demands from Afghan communities, who have endured decades of conflict and are now facing a worsening humanitarian crisis.
“This ban reduces Afghanistan’s prospects of recovery, and must be reversed,” she said.
UNAMA also warned that the ban is a leading factor in Afghanistan’s continued diplomatic isolation. While international recognition of the Taliban government remains elusive, donor nations have repeatedly tied normalization and economic engagement to progress on human rights, particularly women’s rights.
“This ban is also one of the main reasons Afghanistan continues to be isolated from the international community, which is also holding back recovery,” Otunbayeva said. She urged international donors to continue supporting the Afghan people, including through targeted aid to the education sector “where possible.”
Since taking power in August 2021, the Taliban have imposed sweeping restrictions on Afghan women and girls, banning them from secondary and higher education, most forms of employment, and many public spaces — prompting international condemnation and accusations of gender persecution.
