Taliban Keep Afghan Girls Out of School for 5 Years as Public Resistance Fades

3 articles · Updated · 8am.media · Aug 25

Five years after the Taliban returned to power, Afghan girls still cannot study beyond sixth grade, turning what many expected to be a temporary ban into a prolonged reality.
One former student says she was in fifth grade when the Taliban took over and believed schools would reopen by seventh grade; instead, that fifth-grade year became her last.
The report says the closure has erased ordinary school life—from buying uniforms and books to the daily walk to class—and dimmed girls’ hopes of learning and building careers.
More troublingly, it describes growing social acceptance inside Afghanistan: fewer people speak out, fewer ask why girls are denied education, and many parents have resigned themselves to the ban.
That silence, the student argues, risks making the Taliban’s restrictions more durable by normalizing the exclusion of girls from education.