Received From UN Women on Friday 29th August 2025 at 2:30 PM Regarding Women in Afghanistan
Four years after the Taliban occupation
Afghans overwhelmingly support girls' education
A new UN Women report finds that 92 percent of Afghans support secondary education for girls
Kabul: 29 August 2025: (Media Link32//UN Women//Women Screen Desk)::
Afghanistan, which used to bully girls in the name of education, is now changing. Now the respect that looks at girls' education with a loving eye is also rapidly developing. The change is surprising and also the knock of the light of new hopes. This is a matter of pride and happiness not only for Afghanistan but for the whole world.
Despite the ongoing ban on secondary education for girls, Afghans of all genders and socio-economic backgrounds almost universally support girls' right to learn, according to a new UN Women Gender Alert.
The alert looks at the current situation of women and girls in ten key areas, including education and employment, security and mobility, and highlights the impact of a crystallised system of restrictions four years after the Taliban took over.
In a nationwide door-to-door survey of more than 2,000 Afghans, 92 per cent said it was 'important' for girls to continue their schooling, and support for this was strong across rural and urban communities.
In the rural population, 87 per cent of men and 95 per cent of women supported girls' schooling, while in urban areas the figure was 95 per cent for both men and women.
"Girls are almost always the first to say no– they are desperate to learn and simply want the chance to get an education," said Susan Ferguson, UN Women's Special Representative in Afghanistan.
“Families also say they want their daughters to dream this dream. They know that literacy and education can change the trajectory of a girl’s life in a country where half the population lives in poverty.”
In a separate UN Women telesurvey conducted in July and August 2025 in areas where the Taliban’s ban on women working in NGOs reportedly remains in place, 97 percent of women surveyed reported that the ban had a negative impact on their daily lives.
More than half of NGOs in Afghanistan now report that it has impacted their ability to deliver essential services to women and girls.
Other key findings in UN Women’s Afghanistan Gender Alert are:
Despite systemic and persistent restrictions on their lives, 40 percent of Afghan women still envision a future where change and equality are possible – even if nearly every avenue for public participation has been closed.
In a telesurvey conducted in July and August 2025, nearly three-quarters of women across all regions of the country rated their mental health as 'bad' or 'very bad'.
Three-quarters of women reported that they had no influence on decisions in their communities; according to consultations conducted by UN Women, UNAMA and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in April 2025, half said they had no influence on their extended family and one-quarter on their household;
In consultations conducted by UN Women, UNAMA and IOM in June 2025, 14 percent of women reported that they leave the house only once a week, while the figure for men is 2 percent, and only 41 percent of women leave the house at least once a day, while the figure for men is 88 percent.
It seems new days are beginning to appear in the world. A new sun has started to rise. The light of education has started entering the dark houses with closed doors.
This light has also started reaching the dark and jungled minds filled with ignorance. It is now certain that despite many bad news of war and hatred, good days are about to come all over the world.
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