About 2.4 million girls in Afghanistan are barred from secondary school, the United Nations cultural agency has said, renewing its call on the Taliban government to lift restrictions on female education.
UNESCO said on Tuesday that the number of girls deprived of secondary school in the country has grown by 200,000 since last year’s count, and could approach four million by 2030.
Afghanistan is the only country in the world to stop girls and women attending secondary schools and universities, among multiple restrictions on women that have led the UN to accuse the country of “gender apartheid”.
Girls were shut out of secondary schools in March 2022, while women were barred from universities in December that year, months after the Taliban returned to power as the U.S. and allied troops ended their 20-year occupation of the country.
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