Taliban Education Ban Sparks UNESCO Warning | Millions of Afghan Girls Locked Out of School

UNESCO has warned that the Taliban’s continued ban on girls’ and women’s education could cause decades of damage to Afghanistan’s social and economic future. An estimated 2.4 million Afghan girls have been excluded from secondary education since 2021, while women have also been barred from attending universities. Afghanistan remains the only country where girls and women are formally prevented from accessing secondary and higher education. UNESCO estimates that the restrictions could push nearly 600,000 women out of the workforce by 2066, potentially resulting in around $9.6 billion in cumulative income losses. The UN agency has also warned of a shortage of more than 11,000 qualified female teachers by 2030. More than 2 million primary-school children are already out of school for reasons beyond the ban on girls’ education.