How the ban on girls’ education will hamper Afghanistan’s development

Analysis How the ban on girls’ education will hamper Afghanistan’s development
The Taliban, which returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, has outlawed secondary and higher education for women and girls based on its skewed interpretation of Islam. (AFP/File)
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Updated 08 April 2025
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How the ban on girls’ education will hamper Afghanistan’s development

How the ban on girls’ education will hamper Afghanistan’s development
  • The Taliban’s refusal to educate girls is considered among the biggest barriers to Afghanistan’s recovery and growth
  • Experts say denying girls an education only entrenches gender inequality and limits workforce productivity

LONDON: With the Taliban’s ban on secondary education for teenage girls now in its fourth year, the dreams of millions across Afghanistan remain on hold. If the policy continues, experts say it could have serious implications for women’s health and the nation’s development.

The ban, reimposed in September 2021, has already deprived 2.2 million Afghan girls of secondary education as of 2025, according to the UN children’s fund, UNICEF. If the ban persists until 2030, this number could rise to more than 4 million.

“The consequences for these girls — and for Afghanistan — are catastrophic,” Catherine Russell, UNICEF’s executive director, warned in a statement, adding that the ban “negatively impacts the health system, the economy, and the future of the nation.”

The ban is among the harshest measures imposed by the Taliban since its return to power in August 2021. It bars girls from attending school beyond the sixth grade and from universities. Afghanistan is the only country in the world to enforce such a ban.

The Taliban claims its policy aligns with its interpretation of Islamic law, mirroring similar measures during its initial rule from 1996 to 2001.




The ban is among the harshest measures imposed by the Taliban since its return to power in August 2021. (AFP)

The ramifications of the ban extend far beyond the immediate exclusion of girls from schooling. Its effects are likely to reverberate through Afghan society for decades unless the policy is reversed.

Salma Niazi, editor in chief of the Afghan Times, told Arab News the ban “will have devastating, multi-generational effects,” risking “a profound brain drain, economic stagnation, and increased poverty.”

Economically, Afghanistan loses an estimated 2.5 percent of its annual gross domestic product due to the exclusion of girls from secondary education, according to a 2022 UNICEF report.

Niazi said educated women are vital to a nation’s progress, contributing to healthcare, governance, and community resilience.

“Denying them education entrenches gender inequality, limits workforce productivity, and exacerbates cycles of vulnerability, including child marriage and maternal mortality,” she said. “The societal and economic costs will be felt for decades.”

IN NUMBERS

  • 2.2m Afghan girls currently out of school
  • 4m Projected to lose out if ban persists to 2030

Dr. Ayesha Ahmad, a global health humanities scholar at St. George’s University of London, echoed these concerns. “Even if boys and men can access education, there is no foundation for a country’s flourishment without equality in education,” she told Arab News.

“Most significantly, for the forthcoming multiple age groups affected by the education ban, there is a generational impact that will take designated efforts to heal the collective traumas that are being enforced and imposed onto the lives of Afghan girls and women.”

The Taliban’s December 2024 closure of medical education programs for women has intensified these risks. UNICEF’s Russell warned that fewer female doctors and midwives will leave women without critical care, estimating “an additional 1,600 maternal deaths and over 3,500 infant deaths.”

She said in her March statement: “These are not just numbers; they represent lives lost and families shattered.”

Afghanistan already has one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates, with at least 600 deaths per 100,000 live births — nearly triple the global average.




Economically, Afghanistan loses an estimated 2.5 percent of its annual gross domestic product due to the exclusion of girls from secondary education, according to a 2022 UNICEF report. (AFP)

The Taliban’s requirement for male guardians to accompany women seeking healthcare further endangers those in labor. UN Women projects that by 2026, the education ban could increase early childbearing rates by 45 percent and maternal mortality risks by 50 percent.

Ahmad accused the Taliban of “weaponizing discrimination into genocide” through barring women from medical training. “Girls and women simply will die,” she said.

With nearly 28 percent of Afghan girls married before they are 18, UNICEF warns the education ban will only heighten the risk of child marriage, threatening girls’ health and agency.

“With fewer girls receiving an education, girls face a higher risk of child marriage with negative repercussions on their well-being and health,” Russell said.

It is through such policies that the Taliban systematically erases women’s autonomy, said Ahmad, “deliberately shrinking spaces that girls and women can occupy through their growth, individuality, wishes, and agency.”




After Taliban closed medical education programs for women in December 2024, UNICEF’s Russell warned that fewer female doctors and midwives will leave women without critical care, estimating “an additional 1,600 maternal deaths and over 3,500 infant deaths.” (AFP)

Beyond physical harm, the mental health toll is severe. Ahmad said the ban fosters “hopelessness, despair, depression, and suicidality” among Afghan girls and women.

She called for greater awareness of what she described as “a gender apartheid,” urging action against the Taliban policies that erase women’s autonomy.

The policy also threatens Afghanistan’s global standing.

Hasina Safi, Afghanistan’s former minister for women’s affairs, said the ban on girls’ education “will further isolate Afghanistan and Afghan women” while deepening “inequality and instability at all levels — from grassroots communities to policy making.”

She told Arab News: “When you educate a man, you educate an individual; when you educate a woman, you educate an entire family. The first school of a child is a mother.

“The first word of the Qur’an revealed was ‘Iqra,’ which means read — which clearly reflects the importance of education even in Islam.”




Dr. Ayesha Ahmad, a global health humanities scholar at St. George’s University of London, said the ban fosters “hopelessness, despair, depression, and suicidality” among Afghan girls and women. (AFP)

Despite these challenges, families are seeking alternatives to ensure their daughters receive an education. Some are turning to illegal underground schools, the former minister said.

Ahmad explained that although underground schools provide some relief for Afghan girls desperately seeking an education, they remain informal and poorly resourced. “Unfortunately, these are not of an adequate standard,” she said. “They operate in silence.”

Online programs offer another avenue but come with obstacles such as high overseas fees and limited internet access. Afghan students also struggle with power outages and technological barriers while trying to meet academic expectations.

Even if Afghan women complete their education through such means, employment opportunities remain scarce under Taliban restrictions.

“One student I know from Afghanistan had to write her dissertation whilst managing electricity power cuts and not being able to charge or use her laptop to work or access student systems such as lectures,” said Ahmad.

“And to what end? There is no employment for women to develop a career from their education.”




Hasina Safi, Afghanistan’s former minister for women’s affairs, said the ban on girls’ education “will further isolate Afghanistan and Afghan women.” (AFP)

Niazi of the Afghan Times said that in addition to underground schools, Afghan civil society, educators, and international organizations “have shown remarkable resilience,” discretely operating digital learning platforms and community-based initiatives.

“Some NGOs are providing scholarships for Afghan girls to study abroad, while advocacy groups continue to pressure the Taliban through local and global campaigns,” she said. “However, these efforts are often fragmented and operate under severe constraints.”

Highlighting efforts by her independent news outlet, Niazi added: “At the Afghan Times, we’ve launched an Open Mic Podcast where young women share how they’ve clung to hope through online education.

“Their stories — of studying secretly via Zoom, accessing smuggled e-books, or teaching younger sisters at home — reveal both resilience and desperation.”

The three women urged the international community to play a greater role in pressuring the Taliban to lift the ban, which remains a stark violation of fundamental rights and continues to draw widespread condemnation from international organizations and activists alike.




The education ban remains a stark violation of fundamental rights and continues to draw widespread condemnation from international organizations and activists alike. (AFP)

Safi noted that while the international community has responded to the issue, including “condemnations and advocacy,” these actions have “yielded no results.”

She added: “The international community can play a pivotal role at multiple levels of engagement with the Taliban by implementing short, mid, and long-term programs to restore access to education through conditional funding and other proven strategies.”

The international community has strongly condemned the Taliban’s actions. Organizations like UNICEF, UNESCO, and the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan have repeatedly called for the immediate lifting of the ban, emphasizing its catastrophic impact on Afghanistan’s future.

Countries like the UK have taken a firm stance against the restrictions, and Islamic nations have sought to pressure the Taliban into reversing the policy.




Afghan women hold placards during a protest in front of Kabul University in Kabul on October 18, 2022. (AFP)

While the Taliban remains resistant to outside pressure, Safi said sustained international efforts could still create pathways for Afghan girls to access education — even under restrictive conditions.

The Taliban stance is further complicated by its lack of recognition from the international community, primarily due to its systematic oppression of women and girls. No country has granted formal diplomatic recognition to the Islamic Emirate since its 2021 takeover, with ongoing human rights violations cited as the central obstacle.

Niazi called for consistent diplomatic and economic pressure on the Taliban, advocating for increased funding to alternative education programs, including online learning and cross-border initiatives.

The Afghan Times editor also stressed that “global media, like Arab News, play a crucial role in keeping this issue visible,” while “neighboring countries and Islamic leaders could leverage their influence to advocate for change, framing education as a religious and moral imperative.”




The international community has strongly condemned the Taliban’s actions. Organizations like UNICEF, UNESCO, and the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan have repeatedly called for the immediate lifting of the ban. (AFP)

Ahmad criticized what she believes to be the international community’s selective engagement. “When there is a perceived threat to ‘Western’ populations, it is justified to intervene, even if that intervention destroys generations of lives and hope,” she said.

“Yet when there is a structurally violent threat to girls through the institution of education, there is global silence. This is another form of violence.”

She urged nations to prioritize a unified response to ensure educational equality, warning that the continued ban on girls’ education could mean Afghanistan’s “destruction.”

Indeed, she added: “Nothing can be created without education.”

 


Europe launches a drive to attract scientists and researchers after Trump freezes US funding

Europe launches a drive to attract scientists and researchers after Trump freezes US funding
Updated 6 sec ago
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Europe launches a drive to attract scientists and researchers after Trump freezes US funding

Europe launches a drive to attract scientists and researchers after Trump freezes US funding
  • The European Union is launching a drive to attract scientists and researchers with offers of grants and new policy plans
  • It comes after the Trump administration froze US government funding linked to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives
PARIS:The European Union launched a drive on Monday to attract scientists and researchers to Europe with offers of grants and new policy plans, after the Trump administration froze US government funding linked to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“A few years ago, no one would have imagined that one of the biggest democracies in the world would cancel research programs under the pretext that the word diversity was in this program,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at the “Choose Europe for Science” event in Paris.
“No one would have thought that one of the biggest democracies in the world would delete with a stroke the ability of one researcher or another to obtain visas,” Macron said. “But here we are.”
Taking the same stage at the Sorbonne University, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU’s executive branch would set up a “super grant” program aimed at offering “a longer-term perspective to the very best” in the field.
She said that 500 million euros ($566 million) will be put forward in 2025-2027 “to make Europe a magnet for researchers.” It would be injected into the European Research Council, which already has a budget of more than 16 billion euros ($18 billion) for 2021-2027.
Von der Leyen said that the 27-nation EU intends “to enshrine freedom of scientific research into law” with a new legal act. As “the threats rise across the world, Europe will not compromise on its principles,” she said.
Macron said that the French government would also soon make new proposals to beef up investment in science and research.
Last month, hundreds of university researchers in the United States had National Science Foundation funding canceled to comply with US President Donald Trump’s order to end support to research on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as the study of misinformation.
More than 380 grant projects have been cut so far, including work to combat Internet censorship in China and Iran and a project consulting with Indigenous communities to understand environmental changes in Alaska’s Arctic region.
Some terminated grants that sought to broaden the diversity of people studying science, technology and engineering. Scientists, researchers and doctors have taken to the streets in protest.
While not mentioning the Trump administration by name, von der Leyen said that it was “a gigantic miscalculation” to undermine free and open research.
“We can all agree that science has no passport, no gender, no ethnicity, no political party,” she said. “We believe that diversity is an asset of humanity and the lifeblood of science. It is one of the most valuable global assets and it must be protected.”
Von der Leyen’s drive to promote opportunities in Europe in the field of science and take advantage of US policy shifts dovetails with the way that she has played up the potential for trade deals with other countries since Trump took office in January and sparked a tariff war last month.
The former German defense minister, and trained doctor, vowed that the EU would also address some of the roadblocks that scientists and researchers face, notably excessive red tape and access to businesses.
Macron said that science and research must not “be based on the diktats of the few.”
Macron said that Europe “must become a refuge” for scientists and researchers, and he said to those who feel under threat elsewhere: “The message is simple. If you like freedom, come and help us to remain free, to do research here, to help us become better, to invest in our future.”

Pakistan conducts second missile test since renewed India standoff

Pakistan conducts second missile test since renewed India standoff
Updated 05 May 2025
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Pakistan conducts second missile test since renewed India standoff

Pakistan conducts second missile test since renewed India standoff

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan military said on Monday it had conducted a missile test with a range of 120 kilometers (75 miles), the second launch in two days as tensions with India have soared over disputed Kashmir.
New Delhi has blamed Islamabad for backing a deadly attack on tourists on the Indian side of Kashmir last month, sparking a fresh stand-off between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
“The launch was aimed at ensuring the operational readiness of troops and validating key technical parameters, including the missile’s advanced navigation system and enhanced accuracy,” the military said in a statement.
On Saturday, the military said it had tested a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 450 kilometers (280 miles).
It did not say where either of the tests took place.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he was satisfied with the military’s “full preparedness for national defense.”
“The successful training launch clearly shows that Pakistan’s defense is in strong hands,” he said in a statement.
The missile training launch comes after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he has given his military “full operational freedom” to respond to the April 22 attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 people.
Pakistan has denied any involvement and called for an independent probe.
Islamabad warned last week of an imminent air strike from its neighbor and has repeatedly made clear it will respond with force to any aggression by India.
International pressure has been piled on both New Delhi and Islamabad — who have fought several wars over the disputed Kashmir region — to de-escalate.
The two sides have exchanged nightly gunfire for more than a week nine along the militarised Line of Control, the de facto border, according to Indian defense sources.
Muslim-majority Kashmir, a region of around 15 million people, is divided between Pakistan and India but claimed in full by both.
On the Pakistani side, emergency drills have been carried out on playing fields, residents have been told to stock up on food and medicine, and religious schools have been closed.
In Indian-run Kashmir, a vast manhunt seeking the gunmen continues across the territory, while those living along the frontier are moving further away — or cleaning out bunkers fearing conflict.
Sharif has postponed an official visit to Malaysia scheduled for Friday as tensions mounted, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Monday.
His office said the two sides spoke on Sunday night and that he “conveyed that he looked forward to paying an official visit to Malaysia later this year.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Islamabad on Monday for an official visit.
“Pakistan is presenting its case to friendly countries,” Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told reporters on a visit to Pakistan-administered Kashmir on Monday.


Indigenous Catholics hope the next pope shares Francis’ approach to Native people

Indigenous Catholics hope the next pope shares Francis’ approach to Native people
Updated 05 May 2025
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Indigenous Catholics hope the next pope shares Francis’ approach to Native people

Indigenous Catholics hope the next pope shares Francis’ approach to Native people
  • Francis was the first Latin American pope and the first from the order of the Jesuits, who are known for, among other things, their frontline work with society’s most marginalized groups

SIMOJOVEL: At a recent service in the remote southern Mexican community of Simojovel, Catholic and Mayan symbolism mingled at the altar as the deacon — his wife beside him — read the gospel in his native Tsotsil and recalled Pope Francis’ teachings: work together for human rights, justice and Mother Earth.
The scene in the small church in Mexico’s poorest state, Chiapas, conveyed much of the message Francis delivered during his 2016 trip to the region and his other visits to far-flung locales, including the Amazon, Congo and the jungles of Papua New Guinea.
It also illustrated what the world’s Indigenous Catholics don’t want to lose with the death of the first pontiff from the Southern Hemisphere: their relatively newfound voice in an institution that once debated whether “Indians” had souls while backing European powers as they plundered the Americas and Africa.
“We ask God that the work (Francis) did for us not be in vain,” Deacon Juan Pérez Gómez told his small congregation. “We ask you to choose a new pope, a new servant, who hopefully Lord thinks the same way.”
Empowering Indigenous believers
Francis was the first Latin American pope and the first from the order of the Jesuits, who are known for, among other things, their frontline work with society’s most marginalized groups. Although some feel Francis could have done more for their people during his 12 years as pontiff, Indigenous Catholics widely praise him for championing their causes, asking forgiveness for the church’s historical wrongs, and allowing them to incorporate aspects of their Native cultures into practicing their faith.
Among the places where his death has hit particularly hard are the lowlands of the Bolivian Amazon, which was home to Jesuit missions centuries ago that Francis praised for bringing Christianity and European-style education and economic organization to Indigenous people in a more humane way.
Marcial Fabricano, a 73-year-old leader of the Indigenous Mojeño people, remembers crying during Francis’ 2015 visit to Bolivia when the pope sought forgiveness for crimes the church committed against Indigenous people during the colonial-era conquest of the Americas. Before the visit, his and other Indigenous groups sent Francis a message asking him to push the authorities to respect them.
“I believe that Pope Francis read our message and it moved him,” he said. “We are the last bastion of the missions. … We can’t be ignored.”
That South American tour came shortly after the publication of one of Francis’ most important encyclicals in which he called for a revolution to fix a “structurally perverse” global economic system that allows the rich to exploit the poor and turns the Earth into “immense pile of filth.” He also encouraged the church to support movements defending the territory of marginalized people and financing their initiatives.
“For the first time, (a pope) felt like us, thought like us and was our great ally,” said Anitalia Pijachi Kuyuedo, a Colombian member of the Okaira-Muina Murui people who participated in the 2019 Amazon Synod in Rome, where Francis showed interest in everything related to the Amazon, including the roles of women.
Pijachi Kuyuendo, 45, said she hopes the next pope also works closely with Native people. “With his death, we face huge challenges.”
A wider path for the church
Pérez Gómez, 57, is able to help tend to his small Tsotsil Catholic community in Mexico because the church restarted a deaconship program under Francis.
Facing a priest shortage in the 1960s, the church pushed the idea of deacons — married men who can perform some priestly rituals, such as baptisms, but not others, such as conducting Mass and hearing confession.
Samuel Ruiz, who spent four decades as bishop of San Cristóbal de las Casas trying to improve the lives of Chiapas’ Indigenous people, saw deaconships as a way to promote the faith among them and form what he called a “Native church.” The deaconship initiative was such a hit in Ruiz’s diocese, though, that the Vatican halted it there in 2002, worried that Ruiz was using it as a step toward allowing married priests and female deacons. The halt was lifted in 2014.
Pérez Gómez, who waited 20 years before he was finally ordained a deacon in 2022, said he was inspired by Ruiz’s vision for a “Native church.” He said Francis reminded him of Ruiz, who died in 2011 and whom he credits with explaining the church’s true purpose to him as “liberator and evangelizer.”
“Francis also talked about liberation,” Pérez Gómez said, adding that he hopes the next pope shares that view.
New ways to celebrate Mass
It had been a half-century since the Vatican allowed Mass to be held in languages other than Latin when Francis visited Chiapas in 2016 and went a step further.
During a Mass that was the highlight of his visit, the Lord’s Prayer was sung in Tsotsil, readings were conducted in two other Mayan languages, Tseltal and Ch’ol, congregants danced while praying and Indigenous women stood at the altar.
Chiapas was a politically sensitive choice for the Pope’s visit, which wasn’t easily negotiated with the Vatican or Mexican government, according to Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi, who was then bishop of San Cristobal. In 1994, it saw an armed uprising by the Zapatistas, who demanded rights for Indigenous peoples.
Getting the Vatican to allow Mayan rituals in the Mass was also tricky, but Arizmendi recalled that there was a helpful precedent: Congo.
In 1988, the Vatican approved the first cultural innovation in a Mass, the so-called Zaire rite, which is a source of national pride and continental inclusion, said the Rev. Abbé Paul Agustin Madimba, a priest in Kinshasa. “It shows the value the church gives Africans.”
Francis cited the Zaire rite, which allowed some local music and dance to be incorporated into Mass, to argue for such accommodations with other Indigenous Catholics around the world.
The decision was made not only to expand Catholicism, which is in retreat in many places, “but also a theological act of deep listening and conversion, where the church recognizes that it is not the owner of cultural truth, but rather servant of the gospel for each people,” said Arturo Lomelí, a Mexican social anthropologist.
It was the Vatican’s way to see Indigenous rituals not as “threats, but rather as legitimate ways to express and live the faith,” he said.
‘No longer objects’
On the Saturday after Francis’ death, Pérez Gómez stopped by a church in the town near his village to pick up the Communion wafers he would give out during his service the next day. Because he’s a deacon, he needs a priest to consecrate them for him ahead of time.
He and his wife, Crecencia López, don’t know who the next pope will be, but they hope he’s someone who shares Francis’ respect for Indigenous people. And they smile at the thought that perhaps one day, he could become a priest and she a deacon.
“We are no longer objects, but rather people” and that is thanks to God and his envoys, “jtatik Samuel (Ruiz)” and “jtatik Francis,” Pérez Gómez said, using a paternal term of great respect in Tseltal.


Ukraine says it shot down 42 drones from Russia but two regions hit

Ukraine says it shot down 42 drones from Russia but two regions hit
Updated 05 May 2025
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Ukraine says it shot down 42 drones from Russia but two regions hit

Ukraine says it shot down 42 drones from Russia but two regions hit
  • The military said that Russia also attacked Ukraine with two ballistic missiles that were not shot down

KYIV: Ukraine’s air defense units shot down 42 of 116 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack that hit the regions of Sumy and Donetsk, the military said on Monday.
It said another 21 drones were lost but did not disclose the fate of the remaining 53, noting that Sumy and Donetsk “suffered as a result of the attack.”
The military said that Russia also attacked Ukraine with two ballistic missiles that were not shot down.
Civilian authorities in Ukraine did not immediately comment on the overnight attacks.


France, EU leaders spearhead effort to lure US scientists

France, EU leaders spearhead effort to lure US scientists
Updated 05 May 2025
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France, EU leaders spearhead effort to lure US scientists

France, EU leaders spearhead effort to lure US scientists

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen host a Paris conference Monday to attract US researchers ready to relocate because of President Donald Trump’s policies.
EU commissioners, scientists and ministers for research from member countries will discuss, among other things, financial incentives at the gathering to lure disgruntled American scientists across the Atlantic.
Paris’s Sorbonne university is hosting the conference, called “Choose Europe for Science,” which is to close with speeches by Macron and von der Leyen.

 

Under Trump, universities and research facilities in the United States have come under increasing political and financial pressure, including from threats of massive federal funding cuts.
Research programs face closure, tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired, while foreign students fear possible deportation for their political views.
The European Union hopes to offer an alternative for researchers and, by the same token, “defend our strategic interests and promote a universalist vision,” an official in Macron’s office told AFP.
The French president had already last month appealed to foreign, notably US, researchers to “choose France” and unveiled plans for a funding program to help universities and other research bodies cover the cost of bringing foreign scientists to France.

Shortly before, Aix Marseille University in the south of the country said its “Safe Place for Science” scheme received a flood of applicants after announcing in March it would open its doors to US scientists threatened by cuts.

 

Last week, France’s flagship scientific research center CNRS launched a new initiative aimed at attracting foreign researchers whose work is threatened and French researchers working abroad, some of whom “don’t want to live and raise their children in Trump’s United States,” according to CNRS President Antoine Petit.
An official in Macron’s office said Monday’s conference comes “at a time when academic freedoms are retreating and under threat in a number of cases and Europe is a continent of attractiveness.”
Experts say, however, that while EU countries can offer competitive research infrastructure and a high quality of life, research funding and researchers’ remuneration both lag far behind US levels.
But CNRS’s Petit said last week he hoped that the pay gap will seem less significant once the lower cost of education and health, and more generous social benefits are taken into account.
Macron’s office said France and the EU are targeting researchers in a number of specific sectors, including health, climate, biodiversity, artificial intelligence and space.