The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has called for the immediate restoration of the fundamental right to education for women and girls in Afghanistan, five years after severe restrictions on their access to education were imposed.
According to Zharfa News Agency, UNESCO said that in 2026, approximately 2.4 million girls in Afghanistan are being deprived of secondary education.
The achievements made over the previous two decades in expanding girls’ access to education have been undermined by these restrictions, and UNESCO considers the denial of education a “serious violation of the right to learn.”
The organization added that if the situation continues, poverty, irreversible harm, and the risk of early marriage will increase.
UNESCO said it continues to provide community-based education, literacy programs, and skills training to 70,000 people, the majority of them women, in an effort to create alternative pathways to education.
The UN agency once again called on the Taliban to restore the right to education for women and girls unconditionally.
UNESCO said Afghanistan is the only country in the world where access to education beyond the primary level has been formally banned for girls and women.
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