RASC News Agency: While students in cities such as San Francisco begin a new academic year and semester, girls in Afghanistan are denied one of the most basic human rights: education. Today, Afghanistan is the only country in the world that officially bans secondary and higher education for women and girls.
This policy, imposed after the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, has systematically suppressed the lives of millions of girls and young women and is pushing the country’s political, social, and economic future toward gradual collapse.
According to the Guardsman news website, the reality of life for Afghanistani women is an open wound that deepens every day. This injustice has no religious, scientific, or political justification. Education is a universal right, and no society can progress by erasing half of its population.
After seizing power, the Taliban not only dismantled the Afghanistan’s state, but also extinguished hope for a better future. Their first move was banning girls from secondary schools. They then closed universities to women and later barred women from large parts of the workforce.
What was initially presented as a “temporary measure” has now become a permanent system of control imposed on Afghanistani women’s lives.
Education is not only an individual right; it is the foundation of national development. Countries that invest in women’s education perform better in health, economic growth, social stability, and poverty reduction.
By contrast, eliminating women from education removes half of a nation’s intellectual and human capacity. The Taliban’s policy has locked Afghanistan into a cycle of poverty, inequality, and social breakdown.
The closure of schools has led to a sharp rise in child and forced marriages. Many families, having lost all hope, push their daughters into early marriages to protect them from even worse fates under Taliban rule.
At the same time, poverty has deepened, women’s economic dependence has increased, and domestic violence has intensified. Reports document growing levels of depression, trauma, and loss of self-worth among teenage girls. A generation confined to their homes and denied education is being condemned to a dark future.
The international community has repeatedly expressed concern, yet meaningful action has failed to follow. Diplomatic statements and symbolic condemnations change nothing. Until real, coordinated pressure is applied to force the restoration of women’s right to education, meaningful change will remain out of reach.
No society can achieve stability, security, or development when half of its population is denied education. Every day of delay deepens the destruction of an entire generation’s future.
Despite all restrictions, the Taliban has not been able to completely extinguish the desire for education. Afghanistani girls have found alternative paths through home-based learning, online courses, and local literacy networks.
Their silent resistance proves that education is a fundamental right, not a privilege and that this right, even under repression, can never be fully erased.
