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 "discrimination against women and girls".
The Taliban government -- who promised a softer rule after retaking power in August 2021 -- have imposed sweeping restrictions on women, banning them from universities, public parks, gyms and beauty salons.
Girls were barred from secondary schools in March 2022, with universities closed to young women later that year.
"These restrictions are reversing two decades of progress in expanding access to education: while access to schooling for girls was severely limited in 2001, by 2021 nearly one million girls were enrolled in secondary education," UNESCO said.
"Afghan girls and women have the right to learn; that's a basic human right," said Hoda Jaberian, UNESCO's program coordinator for education in emergencies.
"They have the right to work. They should have the freedom of movement."
The schooling ban also carries a high economic cost, with the restriction on women and girls estimated to cost Afghanistan $9.6 billion by 2066, UNESCO said.
Afghanistan's wider education sector is in crisis, with more than half of primary school-age children completely out of school.
More than 90 percent of 10-year-olds are unable to read a simple text, UNESCO said.
A lack of drinking water, sanitation facilities and heating in schools has compounded the crisis, as have natural disasters, including earthquakes that have repeatedly struck the country in recent years.
More than seven million Afghans have returned or been forced to return to the country since 2023, piling further pressure on the education system, the UN agency said.
