UN aid chief warns Taliban’s school ban will cripple Afghanistan’s future workforce
UN humanitarian officials met Taliban leaders in Kabul and Kandahar to stress that halting girls’ education after sixth grade will eventually deprive the country of female doctors, teachers and nurses.
A senior official of the Norwegian Refugee Council, who recently traveled to Afghanistan, discussed the impact of the Taliban’s restriction on girls’ education with the movement’s leadership in both Kabul and Kandahar. He explained that preventing girls from studying past sixth grade will, over time, eliminate a pipeline of future female teachers, doctors, nurses and midwives. Former student Marwa Hashmi warned that this could create a severe shortage of women in health and other fields within the next five to ten years.
Women’s rights advocates, including activist Tafir Siyahposh and Faryal Seyedzadeh, called for the reopening of closed schools and universities and for broader employment opportunities for women. While the Islamic Emirate maintains that women’s rights are safeguarded by Islamic law, the education ban has now lasted five years, and restrictions on women’s work in NGOs have continued for more than three years.
Why it matters
The education ban threatens Afghanistan’s health system and broader development by cutting off future female professionals.
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