RASC News Agency: The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in collaboration with humanitarian aid from the European Union, has announced the establishment of over 9,500 community-based classrooms across Afghanistan, aimed at delivering educational access to thousands of marginalized children. These classes have been set up in remote or underserved areas where public schools are either non-existent, too far, or lack the capacity to accommodate additional students. UNICEF stressed that these makeshift classrooms serve a critical function in regions where children have been systematically denied access to state-run education due to infrastructural limitations and, more alarmingly, due to the Taliban regime’s discriminatory education policies.
Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, the extremist group has implemented one of the most draconian education bans in the world, prohibiting girls from attending school beyond Grade 6 and shutting down universities to female students altogether. This regressive policy has drawn widespread international condemnation and sparked protests from civil society groups both within and outside the country. Despite global outcry and repeated appeals from the United Nations, human rights organizations, and Muslim-majority nations, the Taliban have refused to reverse their ban on girls’ education, instead doubling down on what UNICEF and other agencies have described as “institutionalized gender apartheid.”
In this bleak educational landscape, UNICEF’s initiative offers a rare glimmer of hope. By leveraging local community networks and support structures, the agency has been able to bypass some of the barriers imposed by the Taliban’s central authorities, providing informal education to thousands of children especially girls who have been forcibly excluded from the formal education system. Nevertheless, UNICEF officials warn that these efforts, while crucial, cannot substitute for a functioning national education system, and emphasize that the future of an entire generation of Afghanistani children hangs in the balance unless access to formal, inclusive, and gender-equal schooling is restored.
The Taliban’s systematic dismantling of education particularly for girls is not merely a cultural issue; it is a deliberate strategy to suppress intellectual development, enforce obedience, and prevent social mobility, particularly among women. In doing so, the regime is sabotaging Afghanistan’s long-term human development and deepening the country’s isolation from the global community. Despite these challenges, UNICEF vows to continue its mission of reaching the most vulnerable children across Afghanistan. As one official noted: “Education is not a privilege it is a right. And we will do everything in our power to ensure no child is left behind, regardless of gender or geography.”
