Four years after Taliban takeover, Afghans overwhelmingly back girls’ education
New UN Women report finds 92 per cent of Afghans support girls’ secondary schooling.
Kabul – Despite the ongoing ban on girls’ secondary education, Afghans across gender and socioeconomic backgrounds almost universally support girls’ right to learn, according to a new UN Women Gender Alert.
The alert looks at the current situation for women and girls across ten key areas, including education and employment, safety and mobility, shedding light on the impact of the crystallizing system of restrictions four years after the Taliban takeover.
In a nationwide, door-to-door survey of more than 2,000 Afghans, 92 per cent said it was “important” for girls to continue their schooling, with support cutting across rural and urban communities.
Among rural populations, 87 per cent of men and 95 per cent of women supported girls’ schooling, while in urban areas the figure was 95 per cent for both men and women.
“This is almost always the first thing girls tell us – they are desperate to learn and just want the chance to gain an education,” said UN Women’s Special Representative in Afghanistan, Susan Ferguson.
“Families also say they want their daughters to have that dream. They know that literacy and learning can change the trajectory of a girl’s life, in a country where half the population is living in poverty.”
In areas where the Taliban ban on women working for NGOs is reportedly enforced, in a separate UN Women telesurvey from July and August 2025, 97 per cent of women surveyed reported that the ban has had a negative impact on their day-to-day lives.
More than half of NGOs in Afghanistan are now reporting it has affected their ability to reach women and girls with vital services.
Other key findings in UN Women’s Afghanistan Gender Alert include:
- Despite the systemic and on-going limitations on their lives, 40 per cent of Afghan women still imagine a future where change and equality are possible – even as nearly every avenue for public participation has closed.
- Almost three-quarters of women across all regions of the country described their mental health as “bad” or “very bad”, in a telesurvey conducted in July and August 2025.
- Three-quarters of women report having no influence over decisions in their communities; half said they had no influence within their extended family and one-quarter within their household, according to consultations conducted by UN Women, UNAMA and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in April 2025.
- 14 per cent of women reported leaving their homes only once a week, compared to 2 per cent of men, and only 41 per cent of women left their homes at least once a day, compared to 88 per cent of men, in consultations conducted by UN Women, UNAMA and IOM in June 2025.
Gender alert: Four years of Taliban rule: Afghan women resist as restrictions tighten
