By The South Asia Times

KABUL — More than 2.6 million Afghan girls have been denied access to secondary education since the Taliban seized power five years ago, UNICEF said Friday, as the United Nations warned that women and girls face an "unprecedented" erosion of their rights.

Afghanistan remains "the only country in the world" where secondary and higher education is effectively closed to girls and women, UNICEF said in a statement. Girls have been barred from formal education beyond grade six since September 2021, and women from universities since December 2022.

"Five years may be brief in a country's history, but it is a defining period in a girl's life," said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. "A classroom offers more than learning. It gives a young person a voice and the ability to reach their full potential. And it offers a shield against child labor, early marriage, and violence and abuse. When schools closed, that protection disappeared – at a time when girls needed it most."

The warning came as Susan Ferguson, UN Women's Special Representative in Afghanistan, told reporters that the Taliban have issued more than 100 decrees systematically stripping women of their rights since the takeover on Aug. 15, 2021.

"What's unfolded since then has no parallel in the modern world," Ferguson said.

Girls who remain out of school face heightened protection risks, particularly in households affected by poverty and displacement, UNICEF added. Afghanistan has also experienced large-scale returns from neighboring countries, with more than 2.7 million people returning from Iran and Pakistan since 2023 — about 60% of them children and young people.

The restrictions have contributed to a shortage of women health workers, making it increasingly difficult for women to access medical care, particularly in communities where cultural norms prevent them from being treated by male doctors, Ferguson said.

UNICEF estimates that restrictions on girls' education and women's employment are costing Afghanistan approximately $84 million annually in lost economic output, with losses accumulating each year.

More than 10.7 million Afghan women and girls are expected to need humanitarian assistance this year, while an estimated 4.9 million women and children require treatment for malnutrition, according to UN Women.

Ferguson urged the international community not to abandon Afghan women. "I hear the message over and over from the Afghan women I meet: see us, don't leave us, stand with us, and continue to support us," she said.

UNICEF called on Afghanistan's de facto authorities to "immediately" reverse the restrictions and allow girls and women to return to schools and universities.

"A country cannot thrive when half of its young people are held back," Russell said. "Afghanistan's future is outside the classroom, waiting to be let back in."