Ranks of Afghan girls barred from school swell under Taliban rule

LONDON - As the Taliban mark three years in power in Afghanistan, education experts say prospects for girls returning to high school look remote.

The Taliban administration shut most girls' secondary schools after seizing control of the country in August 2021 and barred women from university in 2022.
Girls can still attend primary school and some religious schools.

Afghanistan is the only country in the world that excludes girls from education.

The school closures have now impacted almost 1.4 million girls, 300,000 more than in 2023, the U.N.'s cultural and educational agency UNESCO said, with numbers increasing every year as more students finish primary level.

UNESCO says the education ban is costing the country 9% of its GDP annually.

Shut out of learning, some Afghan girls are turning to underground schools and online courses.

The Taliban, which also banned girls from school when they first ruled from 1996 to 2001, initially said they had modernised.

But the administration has imposed many of the same harsh restrictions, reversing two decades of internationally backed efforts to educate and empower girls and women.

Why did the Taliban bar girls from school?

The Taliban are divided between hardliners who oppose girls' education and those who want schools to reopen.

The administration has repeatedly stipulated girls must be taught in accordance with Islamic law, without specifying exactly what that means.

In 2022, the government said it was drawing up a plan to reopen high schools, but this has not materialised.

Education experts say the main obstacle is a basic view that a woman's role is to serve men and produce children, and fears that educated women will become rebellious.

Many Muslim countries and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation have criticised the education ban as un-Islamic.

What's behind the Taliban's university ban?

The Taliban issued a decree at the end of 2022, barring women from universities which drew worldwide condemnation and sparked rare public protests across the country.

Reasons cited at the time included inappropriate dress, lack of gender segregation and women studying traditionally male subjects such as agriculture and engineering.

A senior education official said female students were turning up as if dressed for a wedding - a comment that one source said may refer to some wearing bright colours under the head-to-toe coverings enforced by the Taliban.

Some lecturers quit their posts in protest at the ban.

Women can still study nursing and midwifery, but aid agencies say the ban on secondary education means applications for those courses will soon dry up with dire consequences for the country's health system

What about primary schools?

The Taliban reopened primary schools for girls and boys shortly after seizing control.

Girls continue to study the same subjects they did before, including maths and English.

Education experts said there were no signs the Taliban were considering shutting primary schools for girls, as some had previously feared.

However, enrolment has dropped significantly, according to UNESCO.

Do Afghans support girls education?

School attendance rose rapidly after U.S.-led forces ousted the previous Taliban administration in 2001.

In the following two decades, girls' primary school enrolment increased from 0% to 83% and exceeded 50% for secondary education.

University attendance also soared, with tens of thousands of women studying everything from medicine to law to journalism.

In 2015, Kabul University even launched a master's degree in gender and women's studies.

But conservative attitudes, particularly in rural areas, meant there was a large education gender gap, with girls accounting for 60% of children out of school, according to the U.N. children's agency UNICEF.

Pre-Taliban government data suggested a third of girls were wed by the age of 18 and nearly 9% by 15.

Are closed classrooms the only obstacle?

Aid agencies say the economic crisis has forced girls to drop out of primary school. With the Taliban barring women from most jobs, some families also see less reason to educate girls.

A Taliban rule requiring a male chaperone for any female outside the house is a further obstacle.

Another barrier is a long-standing shortage of female teachers. The Taliban oppose mixed education.

The shortage has been exacerbated by an exodus of professionals following the Taliban takeover - and will only get worse due to girls being unable to complete their education and train as teachers.

What impact will the ban have?

The international community says Afghanistan cannot prosper if half the population is excluded from education and work.

Girls and young women say the restrictions are seriously impacting mental health.

Unlike their mothers, many have grown up with education and aspirations, know their rights and feel more connected to the outside world through social media and the internet.

Experts also say the school closures will fuel child marriage. UNESCO estimates that by 2030 child marriage rates will be double what they would be if all girls were in school.

Can older girls and women still access education?

Opportunities remain very limited. Some girls attend underground schools at private homes, while others access lessons online.

But poor connectivity, poverty and language barriers put these options out of reach for most.

Some radio stations are also providing educational programmes.

Last year, the non-profit Begum Organization for Women (BOW) set up the Begum Academy, a digital platform hosting more than 8,500 videos covering the entire secondary school curriculum in Dari and Pashto.

In March, BOW launched an educational satellite TV channel from France in the hope of reaching girls without internet access.

A number of educational institutes outside Afghanistan provide free online courses for students locked out of university.

Some organisations like University of the People (UoP), a U.S.-based non-profit, have provided scholarships for Afghan women.

Digital learning platform FutureLearn is also offering free access to hundreds of short courses on behalf of dozens of universities and institutes, many in Britain.

In 2023, Germany announced it would support about 5,000 Afghan women to study in Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan, saying this could also help them rebuild their homeland when conditions allow.

This story was updated on Aug 15 with new figures and background.

(Reporting by Emma Batha; Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths and Ayla Jean Yackley.)