A classroom offers more than lessons, it also provides protection, and that safety net disappeared when schools closed, at a time when girls needed it most.
More than 2.6 million girls in Afghanistan have been kept out of secondary school in the five years since the Taliban took power, UNICEF said on Friday.
The UN children's agency pointed out that Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where secondary and higher education is effectively closed to girls and women.
Girls have been barred from formal schooling beyond grade six since September 2021. Women were shut out of universities in December 2022, a little over a year later.
The impact goes well beyond the girls themselves. Its analysis estimates that curbs on girls' education and women's employment cost Afghanistan about $84 million in lost economic output every year, and the loss grows the longer the restrictions stay in place.
