Girls’ Education Overlooked in Taliban’s Five-Year Strategy

Girls’ Education Overlooked in Taliban’s Five-Year Strategy
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Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has downplayed the issue of girls’ education, calling it a “minor matter” during the announcement of Afghanistan’s new five-year development strategy.

According to BBC News, the strategy focuses primarily on governance, security, and the economy. Mujahid stated that sectors such as education and healthcare are only addressed in general terms and avoided giving a direct response regarding restrictions on girls’ schooling.

Since the Taliban’s return to power in the summer of 2021, girls above the sixth grade have been barred from attending school and women have been banned from universities, a policy that has drawn widespread international condemnation.

Human rights organizations and foreign governments have repeatedly warned that the Taliban’s stance threatens to leave a generation of Afghan girls without access to formal education, worsening the country’s humanitarian and economic crises.

The omission of girls’ education in the new national strategy has intensified concerns about women’s rights in Afghanistan and further isolated the Taliban on the global stage.