2.4 million Afghan girls shut out of secondary school 5 years after Taliban takeover, U.N. says

“Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls and women are formally banned from secondary and higher education,” a UNESCO official said.

ANKARA, Turkey — An estimated 2.4 million Afghan girls remain excluded from secondary education five years after the Taliban took over the country, a U.N. agency said Tuesday, renewing a call for an immediate restoration of their right to education.

UNESCO, the Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said the continued exclusion of women and girls from education amounted to a grave violation of their fundamental rights.

“Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls and women are formally banned from secondary and higher education,” Hoda Jaberian, UNESCO’s program coordinator for education in emergencies, said in a news conference by video. “Five years is not a temporary interruption in a child’s education. It is clearly almost an entire secondary school cycle.”

Jaberian said: “UNESCO continues to call for the immediate and unconditional restoration of girls’ and women’s right to secondary and higher education. It is not negotiable. It’s a basic human right, and we reiterate that there is no substitute for this.”

Afghan schoolgirls walking with their father to a primary school in Kabul in July.AFP via Getty ImagesThe Taliban seized power on Aug. 15, 2021, as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew from the country after two decades of war.