Ban on girls’ education in Afghanistan will be ‘catastrophic’: UNICEF

The U.N. children´s agency on Saturday urged the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) to immediately lift a lingering ban on girls’ education to save the future of millions who have been deprived of their right to education since the IEA returned to power in 2021.

The appeal by UNICEF comes as a new school year began in Afghanistan without girls beyond sixth grade. The ban, said the agency, has deprived 400,000 more girls of their right to education, bringing the total to 2.2 million.

“For over three years, the rights of girls in Afghanistan have been violated,” Catherine Russell, UNICEF executive director, said in a statement. “All girls must be allowed to return to school now. If these capable, bright young girls continue to be denied an education, then the repercussions will last for generations.”

A ban on the education of girls will harm the future of millions of Afghan girls, she said, adding that if the ban persists until 2030, “more than four million girls will have been deprived of their right to education beyond primary school.” The consequences, she added, will be “catastrophic.”

Russell warned that the decline in female doctors and midwives will leave women and girls without crucial medical care. This situation is projected to result in an estimated 1,600 additional maternal deaths and over 3,500 infant deaths. “These are not just numbers, they represent lives lost and families shattered,” she said.

The Islamic Emirate has previously said that the issue of girls’ education is an internal issue in Afghanistan and efforts are being made to resolve it.