Four years after the Taliban takeover, Afghan girls remain locked out of schools—should India’s regional role amplify their fight for education?
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On 15 August 2025, Afghanistan completes its fourth year since the Taliban’s return to power. These past years have witnessed sweeping restrictions on human rights, especially in the form of the systematic denial of education to millions of Afghan girls. As the country faces worsening economic and social crises, this anniversary should serve as a stark reminder of the urgent need for regional and global actors—including India—to champion the rights of Afghan girls and advocate for peace through education.
The history of girls’ education in Afghanistan has seldom been linear. While there have been periods of progress, gains have remained rather fragile. During the first Taliban rule (1996–2001), a ban on girls’ schooling and women’s employment virtually eliminated women from public life. However, after 2001, international and Afghan efforts led to millions of girls returning to classrooms, which prompted female literacy and enrollment rates to rise sharply. Girls constituted 40 percent of primary school students, 35.7 percent of middle school students, 34 percent of high school students, and 24.6 percent of university students. The female literacy rate almost doubled, reaching from 17 percent to 30 percent, from 2011 to 2018.
Girls constituted 40 percent of primary school students, 35.7 percent of middle school students, 34 percent of high school students, and 24.6 percent of university students.
Nevertheless, with the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, these gains were rapidly reversed, affecting an estimated 2.5 million school-age girls in Afghanistan, which is nearly 80 percent. A ban on secondary schooling, followed by a ban on higher education, effectively erased any educational opportunities for Afghan women and girls beyond the age of 12 years.
Sources: UNICEF 2022, UNICEF 2025, UNESCO 2025
The Taliban’s resurgence has once again led to an era of informal home or madrasa-based religious education for girls. It is projected that if the ban persists until 2030, over four million girls will likely be deprived of education beyond primary schooling. This will lead to a wider gender gap in literacy.
The prohibitions violate the fundamental rights of Afghan girls to learn, work, and thrive. Reports highlight there has been a rise in clinical depression, suicidal thoughts, and self-harm among Afghan women and girls. This systematic erosion is significantly impedes the successful realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 5 (Gender Equality). According to United Nations (UN)-Women, Afghan women can now achieve only 17.3 percent of their full economic potential, making the gender disparity one of the most severe globally.
The UN Development Programme (UNDP) estimates that 85 percent of Afghans subsist on less than US$1 a day, and the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) projects the ban will cause an annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contraction of at least 2.5 percent, or over US$500 million. These losses will compound over each passing year, eroding national productivity and opportunities for social mobility. Beyond statistics, these numbers represent intergenerational poverty, a deepening gender divide and growing radicalisation of Afghan society.
By 2030, the estimated individual income losses for women and girls could total US$1.5 billion. Majority of this loss will be due to the exclusion of women from the workforce.
A 2024 UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) study reveals that the continued exclusion of women from higher education could cost Afghanistan up to US$9.6 billion by 2066—two-thirds of the country’s current GDP. By 2030, the estimated individual income losses for women and girls could total US$1.5 billion. Majority of this loss will be due to the exclusion of women from the workforce. Over the next 35 years, Afghanistan will lose nearly 600,000 women from the workforce, with no pipeline for replacement due to the education ban. This includes teachers, doctors, nurses, engineers, and other professionals essential for national development and public service delivery.
There are significant health implications as well. The exclusion of women from medical education and employment severely compromises the health care system, particularly for women and children. UN Women projects that by 2026, the impact of the education ban will lead to an increase in early childbearing by 45 percent and an increase in maternal mortality by 50 percent.
After the fall of the Taliban’s first rule in 2001, India emerged as one of the largest regional donors, investing over US$3 billion in reconstruction and development projects in Afghanistan. A significant portion of this support was invested in the education sector, a recognition of its significance for Afghanistan’s stability and progress. This included supporting educational infrastructure, expanding scholarship opportunities, investing in teacher capacity building, and advancing digital learning programmes for Afghan students.
While India has not yet formally recognised the Taliban, its approach is guided by ‘historical relations, friendship with its people’, i.e. the long-standing cultural, social, and economic ties with Afghanistan, which go beyond government-to-government relations. This approach emphasises continuity in support through humanitarian aid, development projects, and educational initiatives, while adapting to the new political realities. Accordingly, in 2023, India announced 1,000 online scholarships and expanded EdTech collaborations, focusing on vocational skills, language training, and mental health. Indian NGOs and universities have launched special programmes for displaced Afghan women and girls in India and neighbouring countries. However, India’s aid levels have declined since their 2021–2022 peak.
Indian NGOs and universities have launched special programmes for displaced Afghan women and girls in India and neighbouring countries.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s continued instability presents a significant threat to regional peace and India’s security concerns. The February 2025 UN Security Council report documented over two dozen terrorist groups operating from the Afghan territory, with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant- Khorasan Province (ISIL-K) being labelled the ‘greatest extra-regional terrorist threat’. For India, such developments are deeply concerning, given their implications for border security and rising radicalisation, especially in sensitive areas.
The Taliban’s exclusionary governance model - marked by a ban on girls’ education, absence of human rights protections, and harsh ideological enforcement - has isolated Afghanistan diplomatically, triggered sanctions, and disrupted international aid. This has worsened the humanitarian crisis and caused mass migration to neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, which has responded with forced deportations and heightened border security. The regional consequences of this instability are immediate and severe.
Supporting girls’ education is not just about humanitarianism, but it also aligns with India's broader foreign policy objectives. Championing human rights and education can help India strengthen its diplomatic standing, enhance soft power, and project itself as a responsible regional leader. It can also reinforce bilateral goodwill and trust among Afghan citizens, counter extremist ideologies, and build regional resilience. Therefore, going forward, India must adopt a multi-pronged strategy that includes:
Championing human rights and education can help India strengthen its diplomatic standing, enhance soft power, and project itself as a responsible regional leader.
Establishing moratoriums on female education in Afghanistan is not merely a setback for Afghan girls and women but also a threat to the region’s overall peace, development, and security. India must therefore rewrite and recalibrate its Afghan policy through educational aid, digital access, civil society partnerships, and multilateral advocacy to offer a model of strategic humanitarianism.
Arpan Tulsyan is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for New Economic Diplomacy, Observer Research Foundation.
Ishika Ranjan is a Research Intern at the Observer Research Foundation.
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Arpan Tulsyan is a Senior Fellow at ORF’s Centre for New Economic Diplomacy (CNED). With 16 years of experience in development research and policy advocacy, Arpan ...
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Ishika Ranjan is a Research Intern at the Observer Research Foundation’s Centre for New Economic Diplomacy and a final-year undergraduate at Ashoka University, studying Economics ...
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