This is the terrible mandate the Taliban have announced for all girls in the country (No. 1 on Open Doors 2022 World Watch List). Now in complete control after they seized Kabul last August, the Taliban have declared that no girl is allowed to pursue an education past sixth grade. The decision cripples and devalues Afghan females who have fought so hard for a small degree of independence and justice. Banning education means women can’t have or pursue professional careers. Instead, they’re forced to rely solely on their husbands for financial support and status.
Hana Nasri*, Open Doors’ frontline partner in the region, stressed the goal of the ideology: to disempower women. “Girls going to school could be empowering for them,” she says, “and the Taliban doesn’t want that. The Taliban wants to rob women of agency. Young girls just stay at home. There are no opportunities for them. And it will stay that way as long as the Taliban is in power.”
Less than a year since the Taliban stormed the government, the group has already reneged on their public statements of women continuing to have “a right to education and to work.”