Afghanistan's women's education ban will worsen school quality, UNESCO warns

Afghanistan's ban on women pursuing higher education is expected to exacerbate a critical shortage of female teachers, further diminishing education quality in a country where millions of children are already denied schooling, UNESCO reported Wednesday.

Five years after the Taliban's return to power, approximately 2.4 million girls are unable to attend secondary school, and over 2 million primary school children remain out of school, according to the UN education agency. Women have been barred from universities since December 2022, reversing nearly two decades of progress in girls' education. They are also prohibited from teaching boys.

UNESCO estimates that Afghanistan will face a deficit of more than 11,000 qualified female teachers by 2030. "Many teachers have left the country... and those who were in the system are banned from continuing teaching," said Hoda Jaberian, UNESCO's program coordinator for education in emergencies. She added that the ban on women teaching boys has not only removed qualified educators but also resulted in boys being taught by unqualified male teachers or no teachers at all.

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Many teachers have left the country ... and those who were in the system are banned from continuing teaching.

UNESCO also highlighted that over 90% of 10-year-olds in Afghanistan cannot read a simple text, with national literacy rates at a mere 37%. Many schools are overcrowded and poorly equipped, lacking basic amenities like water, sanitation, or heating. The situation is further strained by the return of 3 million people to Afghanistan in 2025 and natural disasters that have forced the closure of 1,000 schools since 2021.

Afghanistan remains the only country globally to formally bar girls and women from education beyond primary school. UNESCO projects that the ban could cause 600,000 Afghan women to leave the workforce by 2066, resulting in cumulative income losses of $9.6 billion and increasing the risk of early marriage.

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This decision to ban women from teaching boys has not only, of course, removed a substantial number of qualified teachers and educators from the education system, but it also resulted in boys being taught by unqualified male teachers. We are left with unqualified male teachers or no teachers at all.