Taliban’s bans have denied 1.4 million Afghan girls schooling, says United Nations
In the past three years, two decades of progress in the field of education in Afghanistan was ‘almost wiped out’, Unesco said.
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The Taliban government has deliberately denied schooling to 1.4 million Afghan girls through its bans, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization said on Thursday.
In September 2021, the Taliban regime banned education for girls above class six claiming that it does not comply with its interpretation of the Sharia, or Islamic law. This came a month after the group took control of Afghanistan.
The number of girls who were denied access to secondary education has risen by 3,00,000 since the previous count in April 2023, said the specialised UN agency. This was the result of more girls reaching the age limit of 12 every year.
Unesco added: “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.”
The number of children enrolled in primary education has fallen drastically since 2021, according to Unesco data. “Afghanistan had only 5.7 million girls and boys in primary school in 2022, compared with 6.8 million in 2019,” the organisation said.
The fall in primary school enrolment has been caused by the Taliban’s decision to prohibit female teachers from teaching boys, which has exacerbated the shortage of teachers.
The decrease in enrolment...
