Afghan women remain excluded

What's happened

UN agencies and multiple news outlets have reported that, five years after the Taliban retook Kabul, Afghan women and girls remain formally banned from secondary and higher education, face broad curbs on employment and movement, and are losing access to health training such as midwifery, producing a deepening human-rights and public-health crisis.

What's behind the headline?

What the bans have done

• The education ban has removed roughly 2.4–2.6 million girls from secondary school and closed universities to women, halting almost an entire secondary school cycle.
• The ban on training female health workers has reduced the number of midwives and nurses, forcing women to seek clandestine care and training and increasing maternal mortality.

Who is bearing the cost

• Women and girls are suffering direct physical and economic harm: fewer teachers, doctors and midwives will reduce access to basic services and will increase childbirth deaths.
• Families are losing incomes and resilience because women cannot work; communities are losing essential public‑service capacity.

Why international appeals have not reversed the trend

• The Taliban has framed restrictions as an internal matter and is cultivating limited diplomatic engagement while insisting it has delivered security and jobs.
• UN agencies continue to run community and home‑based programmes, but these will not replace formal secondary and higher education or restore professional pipelines.

What will happen next

• The exclusion of women from classrooms and professional training will deepen shortages of female teachers and health workers; by 2030 the UN projects tens of thousands more losses in these professions.
• Afghanistan will face a long-term decline in human capital and public services that will slow economic recovery and increase dependence on humanitarian aid.

What to watch for

• Whether the Taliban changes policy under external pressure, and whether alternative community programmes can scale to preserve a generation's basic skills.
• Trends in maternal mortality and teacher shortages will provide early indicators of worsening public-health and education collapse.

How we got here

The Taliban regained control of Kabul on 15 August 2021. Since then it has progressively barred girls from education above grade six, restricted women’s work and travel, and imposed laws that aid child marriage and domestic violence, reversing two decades of gains and shrinking the pool of female teachers, doctors and midwives.

Our analysis

The coverage from the supplied outlets converges on two central claims: girls have been shut out of secondary and higher education, and women are being pushed out of health and public-service roles. UNESCO and UN Women are quoted directly across AP, Independent and New York Post coverage: Hoda Jaberian of UNESCO said, "Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls and women are formally banned from secondary and higher education," and added that "five years is not a temporary interruption in a child's education. It is clearly almost an entire secondary school cycle" (AP, Independent). The Guardian and BBC reporting provide human detail. The Independent profiles a midwife trainer who says she has been forced to work in secret after a December 2024 Taliban decree banning new female health training; she warns that "the future is very dark" as maternal deaths continue. The Guardian pieces document everyday legal and social restrictions—abolished minimum marriage ages, laws permitting "corrective" domestic beatings, and morality policing—arguing these measures have turned broad swathes of women’s lives into a system of enforced dependence. The Times of Israel relays the UN special rapporteur Richard Bennett saying his mandate "has concluded that this system amounts to the crime against humanity of gender persecution." Where the Taliban's deputy minister Molvi Hayatullah Mahajar Farahi speaks to progress—saying the administration has delivered security and jobs (Independent, Times of Israel)—those statements are juxtaposed with UN agencies' data showing 2.4–2.6 million girls excluded from secondary school and warnings that the bans are undermining the supply of teachers, doctors, nurses and midwives (UNESCO, UN Women via multiple outlets).

Go deeper

• How are UN agencies trying to keep girls learning outside formal schools?
• What indicators will show whether maternal health is worsening rapidly?
• Which countries or organisations are funding covert training for female health workers?

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