“To endure, I keep dreaming, hoping that one day everything will return and, like before, we will regain our right to education and work.” This is said by Farishta Hosseini from Herat, a girl who was in the ninth grade when the Taliban returned to power and has been deprived of continuing her education for more than four years.
Today, the new academic year has begun in the cold provinces of Afghanistan, and millions of boys and girls, up to the sixth grade, wearing special uniforms and carrying backpacks filled with books, notebooks, and pens are heading to school. At the same time, however, millions of young girls and adolescents cannot return to their classrooms, because they have completed the sixth grade.
In the summer of 1400, when the Taliban entered cities and the republic collapsed overnight, many structures and standards in society either collapsed or underwent profound transformation; one of these structures was Afghanistan’s education system, in which the equal right to education for girls was restricted.
With their takeover of Kabul, the Taliban announced a ban on education beyond the sixth grade for girls, and despite expectations for it to end, this restriction has remained in place for more than four years.
Nothing can replace the absence of school
For many girls, being deprived of education has not only meant being unable to attend classes at a nearby school, but, as they say, it has meant being deprived of a life in which they can grow, move closer to their dreams, and achieve independence.
Farishta Hosseini says that for the first two years of being out of school, she was unable to enter any learning environment and remained at home without any specific subject. After two years, Farishta tries to reorganize herself and enrolls in an online school, where she completes the ninth and tenth grades. She also pursues learning computer programs. However, the absence of being in a physical classroom and being alongside her classmates has meant that online classes have not been able to satisfy her.
To bring variety into her life, Farishta has also learned sewing training programs.
This is not only Farishta’s story; among girls deprived of education, thousands have tried to prevent their lives from being wasted by enrolling in online classes for school subjects, languages, as well as attending in-person classes in handicrafts and sewing.
Asma Nikan, another student in Herat who was engaged in her eleventh grade studies when the Taliban returned to power, has followed a similar path to Farishta. She says that during these years, “I tried more to read books and took several online English language courses, and also learned some skills such as embroidery and macramé.” Asma has completed three English language courses over the past four years and has also finished a German language course.
Although girls have tried to fill the free time resulting from being deprived of education in different ways, they have not always been successful, and this restriction has led to mental distress and a strong sense of hopelessness among them.
Asma says: “Being deprived of education has changed my entire life and the lives of all girls. I should now at least be in my third year of university, becoming independent in life and having a future and a job; but now we are good for nothing, useless, and confined to the home.”
Girls deprived of education
The loss of the right to education for girls has not only meant being unable to attend classes, but at times has created suffering that weighs heavily on their minds. In the accounts of some girls deprived of education, this psychological pain has become so deep that crying no longer helps, and thoughts of ending their lives come to their minds.
Asma says: “I went through very difficult problems. I visited the mental health department of Herat hospital several times and was even hospitalized there for two nights once.” She adds that with each passing day her mental condition worsened, and medications were not effective in restoring her health. In May last year, Asma’s parents brought her to Kabul for treatment, and she was hospitalized for one week at the French Hospital. She says with deep distress: “I completely feel that life has nothing left, and everything has been taken away from us.”
For more than four years that girls have been deprived of the right to education beyond the sixth grade, international human rights organizations, the United Nations, and governments have repeatedly called for the restoration of this right to girls in Afghanistan; however, the Taliban have resisted these demands.
Farishta says that during these years, after the closure of schools, she suffered from depression and, even after four years, she is still taking antidepressant medication. To cope with psychological pressure, she spent one and a half years under the supervision of a psychologist and was taking sedative medications.
Farishta adds that these days as well, “I have no attachment to anything and feel that there is no hope for the future; I have even tried several times not to continue living, but I have not acted only because of religious sin, and I force myself to endure.”
One of the consequences of girls being deprived of education is said to be forced marriage, which has raised concerns among international organizations. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in the first year of girls being kept out of school in November 2021, said that since most adolescent girls are still not allowed to return to school, the risk of child marriage has increased. UNICEF has added: “Education is often the best protection against negative coping mechanisms such as child marriage and child labor.”
Farishta’s account of her life confirms UNICEF’s concerns. She says: “Suitors came several times, and my elder brother put a lot of pressure on me that I should accept and get married; but I cried a lot and even went without eating for several nights until my mother spoke with my father, and for now they have turned down the suitors.”
UNICEF stated on 24 January 2026 that the ban on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade in Afghanistan has left 2.2 million girls out of education. According to UNICEF, if this ban continues, the number of girls deprived of education will reach four million by 2030.
The collective impact of banning girls from education has already begun and, according to UNICEF, is catastrophic both for girls and for Afghanistan. The UNICEF report states: “This ban has a negative impact on the health system, the economy, and the country’s future. With reduced access to education for girls, the risk of child marriage increases, which has negative consequences for their health and well-being.”
UNICEF added that the ban on girls’ education will cause Afghanistan to face a shortage of female health workers, putting human lives at risk. Similarly, with the reduction in the number of female doctors and midwives, girls and women will be deprived of the healthcare services they need.
Afghanistan is currently the only country in the world where girls have lost their right to education due to their gender.
Richard Bennett, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, said that Afghanistan is the only country where, with the start of the new academic year, girls above sixth grade are barred from attending school and women are banned from universities.
He said late Sunday (22 March) in his Nowruz message that the ban on girls’ and women’s education in Afghanistan is unacceptable and must be lifted.
The Taliban’s insistence on keeping girls’ schools closed has also led girls to lose hope of returning to school.
Asma says that she has lost hope for the reopening of schools for girls; however, to comfort herself, she tells herself that “eventually this dark night will turn into morning, and the sun of Afghanistan’s girls will rise.”
