Education for Afghan Girls Under the Taliban: Status and Issues for Congress

Education for Afghan Girls Under the Taliban: Status and Issues for Congress

INSIGHTi

Education for Afghan Girls Under the Taliban:
Status and Issues for Congress
April 6, 2022
On March 23, 2022, the Taliban government reversed its previously-announced intention to resume
secondary education for Afghan girls. The last-minute policy change has prompted widespread U.S. and
international criticism and drawn renewed attention to the status of women and girls in Afghanistan, a
longstanding issue of congressional concern. The Taliban decision, together with other recently-imposed
restrictions, raises questions about how Taliban policies on women’s rights may be evolving, as well as
about the group’s responsiveness to outside pressure. Many Members of Congress have expressed deep
concerns about the fate of Afghan women and girls (a focus of prior U.S. development efforts), and the
issue has significant policy implications for Congress and for U.S. approaches to the Taliban’s rule.
Taliban Policy on Secondary Education for Afghan Girls
The August 2021 Taliban takeover sparked fears among many Afghans and others that the group would
prohibit education for all Afghan girls, as they had during their repressive 1996-2001 rule. During their
two-decade insurgency, the Taliban allowed for some girls’ education in areas under their control where
local communities advocated for it, but also conducted numerous attacks against girls’ schools.
Weeks after taking power, the Taliban ordered secondary schools to re-open to boys, arguably introducing
a de facto ban on girls’ education at that level (primary schools reopened to girls earlier, with strict gender
segregation). Taliban officials spoke of reopening girls’ secondary schools “as soon as possible,” giving
late March 2022 as the date for their intended return. Meanwhile, secondary education for girls restarted
in several provinces, mostly concentrated in northern Afghanistan where non-Pashtun ethnic populations
and less restrictive views of women’s rights predominate.
Leading up to March 23, the Education Ministry announced that schools would be open for all students.
On March 23, however, with some girls already present, the Taliban reversed course and announced that
schools for girls would remain closed. Many observers voiced shock at the about-face. In some provinces
where girls had been going to school, the March 23 reversal appears to have banned their attendance. The
Taliban have given multiple and sometimes conflicting reasons for the decision, including shortages of
religious uniforms and female teachers.
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It remains unclear what prompted the reversal, particularly given the Taliban’s opaque decision-making
processes. One analysis attributes the decision to the advocacy of hardline conservative clerics within the
group, who apparently persuaded Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada (himself a religious
cleric). Other Taliban figures, however, reportedly support secondary education for girls (and some
educate their own daughters abroad), revealing potential divisions within the group along generational,
geographic, and political lines. The evidently greater influence of the group’s traditional leaders (over that
of “pragmatists” who urge greater engagement with the international community) suggests that outside
actors may have limited leverage over Taliban decisions.
The Taliban takeover ushered in a “general curtailment of Afghan women and girls’ fundamental human
rights and freedoms,” and their decision on girls’ secondary education comes amid several other moves
that may portend a more repressive official stance on women’s rights more broadly. Those moves include
blocking women from boarding flights at Kabul airport without a male chaperone (related to the group’s
former order that women be accompanied by a male relative while traveling) and segregating Kabul parks
by gender. Some women are attending private and public universities under various restrictions and in
fewer numbers than before.
U.S. Response and Issues for Congress
The Biden Administration criticized the Taliban decision, with a State Department spokesperson
describing the Taliban’s “deeply disappointing and inexplicable reversal” as “a potential turning point in
our engagement.” The United States also canceled meetings on economic issues with the Taliban.
Some Members of Congress also criticized Taliban’s actions, with one calling on the Administration to
“hold the Taliban accountable” and others drawing attention to the Keeping Girls in School Act (H.R.
4134/S. 2276). A group of 21 senators called on President Biden “to show the world we are prioritizing
the rights of Afghan women and girls” and demonstrate that “there must be clear consequences” for the
Taliban’s action, including possibly pushing to end exemptions for several Taliban officials from a U.N.
travel ban (in place since early 2019).
Other potential U.S. measures and options for congressional action might include additional U.S.
sanctions, further restrictions on the disposition of Afghan central bank assets, or conditions on U.S.
assistance (including to prohibit U.S. support for education to which girls do not have access), though it is
unclear how, if at all, those actions might influence the group’s decisions. While some have advocated
concrete consequences for the failure to open schools, others have suggested that additional international
pressure or advocacy could be counterproductive, hardening the Taliban’s position and allowing the
Taliban to reframe secondary education for girls as a foreign demand.
The Biden Administration has requested funds in its FY2023 budget proposal to bolster education, among
other sectors, in Afghanistan, though no U.S. development or other government personnel have operated
there since the August 2021 closure of U.S. Embassy Kabul. Such funds would likely support
programming carried out by nongovernmental organizations that have provided education to Afghan
children with support from the World Bank-managed Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund and United
Nations agencies; these agencies have also directly supported Afghan teachers. The World Bank
reportedly suspended hundreds of millions of dollars in programming in Afghanistan in response to the
Taliban decision. The United States had previously stated that it would pay the salaries of Afghan teachers
if the Taliban reopened schools to girls.
As they consider a way forward, Members may consult a number of executive branch reports related to
U.S. policy toward Afghan women and girls mandated in legislation in the 117th Congress, including:

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 a report that includes a “comprehensive strategy for how U.S. military capabilities and
partnerships could be used to promote the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan”
(H.Rept. 117-118); and
 a report that details plans to, among other efforts, “protect and strengthen the rights of
Afghan women and girls.” (Sec. 7044 of P.L. 117-103).

Author Information

Clayton Thomas

Analyst in Middle Eastern Affairs

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