The Kabul Tribune (KT) — No country can thrive when its daughters are sidelined, and Afghan girls deserve classrooms rather than barriers, the United Nations in Afghanistan said Sunday as schools reopened in some provinces following the summer break.
In a post on X, UN Afghanistan said millions of Afghan girls remained “locked out of their own futures” as they continue to be denied access to education beyond the sixth grade under Taliban rule.
“Schools in some provinces are reopening after summer break, but millions of Afghan girls remain locked out of their own futures,” the U.N. mission said. “For over five years, their right to learn has been denied.”
The Taliban have barred girls from attending secondary school since returning to power in Afghanistan in 2021. The restrictions have also expanded to universities, leaving Afghanistan as the only country in the world where girls and women are barred from education beyond primary school.
The U.N. and international rights groups have repeatedly condemned the restrictions, warning that excluding women and girls from education will have long-term consequences for Afghanistan's economy, health system and broader development.
As boys and younger girls return to classrooms in some parts of the country, millions of girls who have passed the sixth grade remain unable to resume their education.
The Taliban have defended the restrictions as consistent with their interpretation of Islamic law and Afghan culture, despite widespread international calls for the bans to be reversed.
