Silenced Classrooms: The Taliban’s Gendered Attack on Education
Women for Women International defines gender-based violence (GBV) as violence “directed at an individual based on biological sex or gender identity.” It includes “physical, sexual, verbal, emotional, and psychological abuse, threats, coercion, and economic or educational deprivation, whether occurring in public or private life.”
Though GBV doesn’t usually encompass educational deprivation, such an act is a structural form of violence that most often targets women. Since retaking power in 2021, the Taliban has deliberately restricted educational opportunities to marginalize and control women, inflicting systemic violence. Depriving Afghan girls of secondary education in Afghanistan should be internationally recognized as a form of GBV.
June 8 marked 1,000 days since the Taliban banned girls over the age of 12 from attending schools in Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch has since stated that Afghan society “will never fully recover” from losing so many future female professionals, especially given its already-low youth literacy rates.
In 2018, UNICEF estimated that 3.7 million Afghan children were out of school, 60 percent of whom were girls, often due to social and cultural obstacles. A lack of female teachers — especially in rural schools — early marriage, and other conservative practices have contributed to the undermining of girls’ education. In April 2022, less than a year following the Taliban’s takeover, Save the Children estimated that almost 8 million school-aged children needed support to access education, with nearly 80% of Afghan girls being denied their right to education. While pre-existing cultural norms have created barriers to education in the past for Afghan girls, the Taliban’s recent restrictions represent a calculated escalation of gender-based violence by leveraging education as a means of control.
The Taliban’s initial ban on co-education and the dismissal of female teachers were early signs of their regressive agenda. Educators who feared a reversal of hard-won progress with regards to girls’ education if the Taliban came back were proven right. Immediately after seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban imposed a series of curfews and bans that restricted all movement, preventing children from attending school. The Taliban’s education minister then announced new restrictions on girls’ education, such as gender-segregated classrooms, the implementation of an Islamic dress code, and revised curriculum. Later in March 2022, they ordered that only boys and male teachers could return to the classroom backtracking on all their initial promises..
In the following weeks, primary school students returned to gender-segregated classrooms in Kabul, with older girls excluded from attending school at all as the Taliban stated that “a safe learning environment” was needed before older girls could return. Contrarily, schools often create a safe environment by enforcing a physical separation between girls and abusers who are present in their homes or communities. The presence of trusted adults in school environments — teachers, counselors, and healthcare providers — can offer girls a network of support to report abuse, seek help, and access resources.
The ban on education for girls beyond grade six extended to private education, increasing the risk of child marriage, maternal mortality, and sexual violence. These measures also negatively influence men and boys, as they further reinforce harmful gender stereotypes. Women teachers, who previously educated boys, are now banned from employment, leading to unqualified male teachers or no teachers at all. Corporal punishment has increased, curricula are being revised to remove essential subjects, and boys face greater economic pressures, causing many to leave school. Those remaining often struggle with mental health issues like anxiety and depression, exacerbated by the lack of mental health services. The crisis demands an international response to lift bans on female education, rehire women teachers, restore comprehensive curricula, and eliminate corporal punishment.
Enforcing stay-at-home orders and disrupting academic support networks exacerbates pre-existing gender inequalities. It may also trap women and girls with domestic abusers. This kind of educational deprivation has cascading consequences. Increasing women’s education reduces their risk of experiencing intimate partner violence by improving cognitive skills, employment opportunities, and economic independence, Afghan girls have been deprived of all of this.
Despite international demands to allow all Afghan children to return to school, Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister has avoided making firm commitments on girls’ education. Criticism from the UN Security Council, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and almost all members of the G7 and G20 has not affected the Taliban, who have upheld this ban through the present. “In Afghanistan, girls and women are seeing a rapid reversal of the rights they achieved in recent decades, including their right to a seat in the classroom,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said.
On June 18, the Human Rights Council held a dialogue on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, focusing on severe violations against women and girls. Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett reported that the Taliban’s treatment of women may amount to crimes against humanity, including gender persecution. Since June 2023, the Taliban has issued at least 52 edicts further restricting the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, often enforced with increasing intensity and violence. The Taliban reportedly enforces their repressive policies through violent means including rampant rape, forced sterilization, arbitrary detention, and forced displacement, which are considered potential crimes against humanity.
Despite the Taliban’s oppressive measures, Afghan women continue to fight for their right to education. Afghan women started an online campaign using hashtags like #DoNotTouchMyClothes to protest the Taliban’s strict new dress code for female students. Some courageous individuals have even s set up ‘secret’ underground schools, such as Angela Ghayour, who founded the Online Herat School, offering over 170 different online courses via Telegram or Skype. Every week, Ghayour engages nearly 400 volunteers to teach 1,000 female students subjects ranging from math and music to cooking and painting. As of 2024, Angela still continues to teach despite weekly death threats.
In February 2024, the UN accused the Taliban of enforcing “gender apartheid” through its discriminatory policies against women and girls, calling Afghanistan a “graveyard of buried hopes.” Pursuant to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, women should have equal access to all basic rights, including education and employment. The Taliban’s education restrictions are a clear act of gender-based violence, systematically depriving Afghan girls of their fundamental rights. It is crucial for the international community to intensify its efforts to support Afghan women and girls, ensuring them their rightful seats in the classroom — thereby guaranteeing their right to a productive and meaningful future.
Avantika Singh is a graduate student pursuing an M.A. in International Human Rights at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. She is a guest writer for #Verified by the Human Rights Center.
