Afghanistan the only country banning girls from secondary school and women from university

What you need to know:

• Women’s freedom curtailed: Taliban restrictions have sharply limited Afghan women’s movement, education, employment and access to justice.
• Five years of Taliban rule: UN Women says Afghanistan remains the world’s most severe women’s rights crisis.

Half of Afghan women now leave their homes only once or twice a month as Taliban-imposed restrictions curtail their freedom of movement and participation in public life, according to data released by UN Women on Wednesday.

As the Taliban prepare to mark the fifth anniversary of their return to power this week, Afghanistan remains the only country in the world to ban girls from secondary education and women from attending university, stated the UN agency, which promotes gender equality.

“Half a decade after the Taliban takeover in August 2021, Afghanistan has systematically dismantled the rights of half its population, making it a global outlier with no parallel in the modern world,” UN Women said in a statement.

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The Taliban-run Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which enforces many of the government's rules on women, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The government's chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, also did not immediately respond.

The Taliban have barred an estimated 2.4 million Afghan girls from secondary education since they regained power in Afghanistan in 2021, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation said on Tuesday.

UN Women said the Taliban authorities have issued more than 100 decrees targeting women and girls since taking power, institutionalising discrimination and deepening what it described as the world's most severe women's rights crisis.

The Taliban argue they respect women's rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law and Afghan culture. More than half of women surveyed by the UN agency reported leaving home twice a month or less, while nearly three-quarters said they felt unsafe going out without a male guardian, known as a mahram.

The restrictions have also fuelled a worsening mental health crisis, according to the UN agency. Seven in 10 women described their mental health as "bad" or "very bad", citing isolation, loss of opportunities and limited access to support networks.

The agency warned that recent decrees had further weakened women's legal protections. Measures introduced this year abolished legal equality between men and women before the law, strengthened men's authority within marriage and made it more difficult for women to seek divorce, it said.

Women also remain largely excluded from the economy. Only 7 per cent of women are employed compared with 84 per cent of men, according to the UN Women report.

The agency said its report was based on a door-to-door survey of 2,190 people in February to March 2025 and telephone surveys of 2,811 people conducted in April to May 2026.