Overview
- The U.N. agency published a new estimate Tuesday reporting about 2.4 million Afghan girls are currently excluded from secondary education, an increase of roughly 200,000 from 2025.
- UNESCO warned that if the bans remain in place the number excluded could approach four million by 2030 as new cohorts finish primary school.
- The restrictions began when the Taliban closed girls’ secondary schools in March 2022 and were extended with a ban on women attending universities in December 2022.
- UNESCO projects long-term harm including an estimated $9.6 billion in cumulative income losses to 2066 and about 600,000 fewer women in the labor force, plus a shortfall of more than 11,000 qualified female teachers by 2030.
- The agency and partners run community literacy and skills programs with more than 1,000 facilitators as stopgaps, but UNESCO says these cannot replace full formal schooling and calls for immediate, unconditional restoration of girls’ and women’s access to secondary and higher education.