Five Years On: Taliban Ban Leaves Afghan Girls Without Education

After seizing control of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, the Taliban closed the doors of all schools to girls above sixth grade, and have gradually banned women and girls from universities, schools, and other public and private educational institutions as well.

Before the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the second day of the month of Hamal (First of Hijri Calendar) was celebrated annually as Education Day, and school bells rang in cold regions of the country.

Now, nearly five years later, the Taliban have banned girls above sixth grade from attending school.

On the occasion of this day, several girls who have been deprived of education, along with civil and political activists, have stated that the Taliban, through their ideology, have destroyed the dreams and aspirations of an entire generation, and that the country’s future faces a serious crisis and danger.

After seizing control of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, the Taliban closed the doors of all schools to girls above sixth grade, and have gradually banned women and girls from universities, schools, and other public and private educational institutions as well.

Several girls who have been deprived of education say that in addition to suffering from depression and hopelessness, they have been exposed to forced marriages and domestic violence, and now feel cut off from society in a profound way.

Lailma, one of the students who has been barred from school, says that for the past four years she had hoped that schools would reopen and she would be able to return to her studies, following the news every day in anticipation of good tidings that would allow her to continue her education and see her classmates and school again.

Now, however, she has lost all hope and finds herself in a very difficult situation.

This girl, who has been denied her education, adds: “Days and nights all pass the same way.

There is no hope left, and no bright path in sight.

We went blind waiting and heard no good news; instead, things got worse every day.

Now my days are spent in the kitchen, washing dishes and cooking food, and I no longer have any hope for a bright future or an education.

” Mehrafrouz, another girl, says she graduated from sixth grade last year.

With deep sighs and a sense of longing, she says, “I wish I could have continued so that I could go to school this year too.

I don’t know how this year will pass without school.

I wish I were not in Afghanistan.

I always dreamed of becoming a doctor, and now I have graduated from sixth grade.

I wish I had failed.

” Reactions to the Continued Ban on Girls’ Education The Foundation for Women’s Freedom and Thought in Afghanistan has issued a statement strongly condemning the continued deprivation of girls of their right to education.

The women’s movement says this situation reflects the persistence of a discriminatory and alarming policy that poses a serious threat to the future of an entire generation.

Fawzia Koofi, a former member of parliament and women’s rights activist, responding to the fifth year of women’s and girls’ exclusion from education, has emphasized that Afghanistan is the only country in the world where those in power have banned the education of women and girls.

She added that an entire generation has been stolen by Taliban ideology.

Rahmatullah Nabil, the former Director General of National Security of the previous government of Afghanistan, said at the start of the new academic year that the Taliban’s continued closure of schools to girls is not only a barrier to education, but also closes the doors to Afghanistan’s future.

Reposting a video on X of a march by schoolgirls four years ago, he wrote that the future of any country is built on knowledge, awareness, and hope, and that preventing education is not merely a political or religious decision, but rather “an open act of enmity against the fate of a nation.

” Nabil stressed that when ignorance becomes sacred, darkness prevails, and added that the Taliban are a force that has dragged Afghanistan from light into darkness.

Richard Lindsay, the United Kingdom’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, expressed concern that millions of girls in Afghanistan remain deprived of their right to education as the new year begins.

He wrote on X that denying women and girls access to education harms the country’s future and holds back all communities across Afghanistan.

The UK’s Special Representative for Afghanistan stressed that education must be accessible to everyone.

Previously, the Uzbekpedia news channel had obtained an audio recording of a speech by Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban Supreme Leader, in which he issued an order to close all schools, including both girls’ and boys’ schools, across Afghanistan.

In the recording, Hibatullah compared schools to madrassas, saying that schools corrupt people’s “morals” and change their thinking, and therefore must be closed.

He claimed that schools were built in opposition to madrassas, and that the Taliban should build madrassas instead of schools and send their children there.

In the audio recording, the Taliban Supreme Leader accused people of “cowardice” and implicitly referred to those who attend schools as agents of the West.

He claimed that those who have gone to school have corrupted Islam.

Hibatullah said that schools produce doctors and engineers who, “for money and status, take human lives.

” The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had previously issued a joint statement on the occasion of World Education Day, calling for measures to “protect the right to education” in Afghanistan.

The two organizations declared that Afghanistan is currently facing a “widespread learning crisis,” with 93 percent of children lacking the necessary reading skills by the end of primary school.

According to reports from these two organizations, by early 2026, more than 2.

2 million girls had been affected by this deprivation.

These concerns are being raised as girls in Afghanistan have been barred from school and education by the Taliban for 1,647 days.

Through their education ban, the group has prevented girls from learning, growing, and fully realizing their potential.

Reporter: Mohammad Fahim Azimi.