PARIS: Around 2.4 million girls in Afghanistan have been denied access to secondary education since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the United Nations said Tuesday, urging an end to such “discrimination.”
The Taliban administration, recognized solely by Russia, has imposed a series of restrictions on women that the United Nations has characterised as “gender apartheid.”
Girls cannot study beyond primary school, a policy the Taliban authorities justify based on their interpretation of Islamic law.
The number of girls denied access to secondary school has risen by 200,000 since last year and could reach nearly four million by 2030 if the ban persists, said the UN’s cultural and educational agency UNESCO.
The UN agency called for the immediate restoration of their right to education and condemned the “discriminations against women and girls.”
