Taliban Bars 2.4 Million Girls From School as Aid to Afghanistan Falls 70%
Updated
Updated · CNN International · Aug 15
Taliban Bars 2.4 Million Girls From School as Aid to Afghanistan Falls 70%
3 articles · Updated · CNN International · Aug 15
Summary
2.4 million Afghan girls are now excluded from school beyond sixth grade, making Afghanistan the only country to bar girls from secondary education.
Nearly 70% of humanitarian funding has vanished since 2022, and the Trump administration's 2025 cancellation of almost all USAID contracts cut more than $1.7 billion in planned assistance.
March decrees let men beat wives if no lasting wounds are left and removed the minimum marriage age, while women are barred from most jobs and often leave home only once or twice a month.
10.7 million women and girls depend on aid, more than half of women-led groups expect to shut within a year, and nearly 600 health facilities have already closed.
Five years after the US withdrawal, Afghanistan faces deepening poverty and child malnutrition even as the Taliban's 2022 poppy ban slashed opium output about 95% without replacing rural incomes.
As Western aid vanishes and clinics close, who is stepping into the deadly void left in Afghanistan's collapsed healthcare system?
Can underground networks and alternative programs save millions of Afghan girls from institutionalized child marriage before it is too late?
With a new Russian military pact and vanishing international aid, how will the world handle a regime weaponizing gender and starvation?
Five Years On: How Taliban Rule and Aid Cuts Have Created the World’s Worst Crisis for Afghan Women and Girls
Overview
Five years after the Taliban’s return to power, Afghanistan faces a deepening crisis driven by harsh restrictions on women and girls, the collapse of international aid, and escalating regional conflict. The Taliban’s decrees have dismantled female rights, banned girls from education, and blocked women from healthcare jobs, causing a sharp drop in access to essential services. Severe aid cuts, especially from the US, forced hundreds of clinics to close and left women-led organizations on the brink of shutting down. Meanwhile, millions of refugees are being forced back from Pakistan and Iran, while cross-border violence and food shortages push the country further into humanitarian disaster.