UNESCO: 2.4 Million Afghan Girls Banned from School

ILLUSTRATION PHOTO/Afghan children/DOK Erika Stetson via Wikimedia Commons

JAKARTA - The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) stated that as many as 2.4 million Afghan girls did not have access to secondary education during the five years of the new government in the country.

According to the UN agency's data, Afghanistan is still the only country in the world where girls and adult women are officially banned from secondary and higher education.

"Women are also prohibited from attending university since 2022 and continue to face strict restrictions on employment and participation in public life... The loss of these opportunities has had a very wide-reaching impact," UNESCO said in its report, as reported by ANTARA from Sputnik, Friday, August 14.

Based on UNESCO's estimates, restrictions on education and employment for women in Afghanistan could lead to a significant decline in the number of female workers and a total loss of household income of about 9.6 billion US dollars (about Rp171.3 trillion).

The UN agency believes that prolonged educational exclusion can also increase the risk of early marriage.

According to UNESCO, this crisis is not limited to the exclusion of girls from secondary and higher education.

More than two million school-age children are also not receiving an education for reasons that are not related to restrictions on girls and adult women.

The literacy rate of the population is also very low. UNESCO notes that more than 90 percent of 10-year-old children are unable to read or understand simple texts, while the literacy rate in Afghanistan is only about 37 percent.

UNESCO warns that the continued restriction of girls' education will reduce the number of women working in skilled professions, such as in the education and health sectors.

As a result, Afghanistan's human capital is increasingly weak, and its ability to provide basic services to the population.