Five years after the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan remains the only country globally where girls and women are formally excluded from secondary and higher education, with approximately 2.4 million girls currently denied access to secondary education.
The restrictions extend far beyond education. New UN Women data shows that more than half of surveyed Afghan women rarely leave their homes, while widespread restrictions on employment, movement and public participation continue to deepen their exclusion.
In 2026, Afghanistan’s gender crisis is entering a phase of institutionalisation and normalisation. The Taliban are embedding women’s exclusion more deeply into law and enforcement mechanisms, while international engagement is increasingly shifting from isolation of the authoritarian regime toward pragmatic cooperation.
Read the full policy brief by the Platform for Peace and Humanity‘s Central Asia programme’s Researcher, Gabriela Boloca.
Image: Women in Burka in Kunduz City on humanitarian Aid, 16 November 2021 © Wanman uthmaniyyah on Unsplash
