Over 90% of Afghans Back Girls’ Right to Education

Despite the ongoing ban on girls’ secondary education, more than 90 per cent of Afghan adults support girls’ right to attend school, according to a new alert from the UN’s gender equality agency, UN Women.

Four years after the Taliban takeover in August 2021, the scale and severity of the women’s rights crisis continue to intensify. Afghanistan is currently the only country in the world where girls are prohibited from attending secondary school.

Yet, in a nationwide door-to-door survey of over 2,000 Afghans, more than nine in 10 supported girls’ right to learn.

“It is clear: Despite the existing bans, the Afghan people want their daughters to exercise their right to education,” said Sofia Calltorp, UN Women’s Chief of Humanitarian Action, at a press conference in Geneva on Friday.

A protracted humanitarian crisis continues in Afghanistan, coupled with systemic and institutionalised restrictions on women’s and girls’ rights.

Calltorp stressed the importance of continuing to invest in Afghan women’s community organisations, which provide healthcare, mental health support, and opportunities for social connection.

“In a country where half the population lives in poverty, education is the difference between despair and possibility,” she said, highlighting the population’s yearning for schooling.

“This is almost always the first thing girls tell us – they are desperate to learn and just want the chance to gain an education,” added UN Women’s Special Representative in Afghanistan, Susan Ferguson.

A year after the introduction of a stricter morality law codifying sweeping restrictions, the new alert highlights the deepening normalisation of the women’s rights crisis.

The Taliban’s ban on women working for NGOs – announced nearly three years ago – continues to have a devastating impact, according to UN Women. More than half of NGOs report that it has affected their ability to reach women and girls with vital services. A UN Women survey conducted in July and August found that 97 per cent of Afghan women said it had negatively impacted them.