Taliban deprived 1.4 million Afghan girls of schooling through bans, U.N. agency says
KABUL — The Taliban has deliberately deprived 1.4 million Afghan girls of schooling through bans, according to a United Nations agency. Afghanistan is the only country in the world that bans female secondary and higher education.
The Taliban, which took power in August 2021, barred education for girls above sixth grade because it said it didn’t comply with its interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law.
The Taliban didn’t stop education for boys and shows no sign of taking the steps needed to reopen classrooms and campuses for girls and women.
At least 1.4 million girls have been deliberately denied access to secondary education since the takeover, an increase of 300,000 since its previous count in April 2023, with more girls reaching the age limit of 12 every year, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO.
“If we add the girls who were already out of school before the bans were introduced, there are now almost 2.5 million girls in the country deprived of their right to education, representing 80% of Afghan school-age girls,” UNESCO said.
The school year in Afghanistan has started but without girls whom the Taliban barred from attending classes beyond the sixth grade.
The Taliban did not respond to requests for comment.
Access to primary education has also fallen since the Taliban took power, with 1.1 million fewer girls and boys attending school, according to UNESCO data.
The U.N. agency warned that authorities have “almost wiped out” two decades of steady progress for education in Afghanistan. “The future of an entire generation is now in jeopardy,” it added.
As the Taliban takes unfettered control of Afghanistan, major challenges await, including at the Kabul airport, the scene of the West’s last stand.
It said Afghanistan had 5.7 million girls and boys in primary school in 2022, compared with 6.8 million in 2019. The enrollment drop was the result of the Taliban decision to bar female teachers from teaching boys, UNESCO said, but could also be explained by a lack of parental incentive to send their children to school in an increasingly tough economic environment.
“UNESCO is alarmed by the harmful consequences of this increasingly massive drop-out rate, which could lead to a rise in child labor and early marriage,” it said.
After the Taliban barred women from most education and jobs. half of Afghanistan’s population is locked out of work when the country’s economy is worse than ever.
The Taliban celebrated three years of rule last week at Bagram air base, but there was no mention of the country’s hardships or promises to help the struggling population.
Decades of conflict and instability have left millions of Afghans on the brink of hunger and starvation and unemployment is high.
Butt writes for the Associated Press.
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