Five years after the Taliban's return to power, Afghanistan stands as the only nation on earth to have formally barred girls from secondary and higher education — a distinction that is not a matter of sovereignty but of conscience. An estimated 2.4 million girls have been systematically excluded from classrooms, erasing two decades of hard-won progress and severing an entire generation from the pathways of knowledge, economic life, and public participation. UNESCO continues to hold a quiet vigil through underground literacy networks, but the world is reminded that survival in the shadows is no
2.4M Afghan girls barred from secondary school 5 years after Taliban takeover
2.4 million Afghan girls denied access to secondary education, effectively excluded from public life and future economic participation due to systematic Taliban restrictions.