The agency said the crisis is already depriving children of learning and healthcare, while also weakening Afghanistan’s economy and the essential services that depend on trained women professionals.
A new UNICEF analysis, The Cost of Inaction on Girls’ Education and Women’s Labour Force Participation in Afghanistan, found that female representation in the civil service fell from 21 per cent to 17.7 per cent between 2023 and 2025.
Girls locked out
More than one million girls have been denied their right to learn since Taliban authorities banned girls from secondary education in September 2021.
If that remains in place until 2030, more than two million girls will have been deprived of education beyond primary school in a country that already has one of the lowest female literacy rates in the world.
“Afghanistan cannot afford to lose future teachers, nurses, doctors, midwives and social workers, who sustain essential services. This will be the reality if girls continue to be excluded from education,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
“We urge the de facto authorities to lift the ban on secondary education for girls and call on the international community to remain committed to supporting girls’ rights to learn.”
Essential services at risk
The report says that Afghanistan faces a dual crisis: losing trained female professionals while preventing the next generation from replacing them.
By 2030, the country could lose up to 20,000 women teachers and 5,400 healthcare workers, according to the analysis.
The education sector is already feeling the impact. The number of female teachers in basic education fell by more than nine per cent, from nearly 73,000 in 2022 to around 66,000 in 2024.
The decline threatens children’s learning, particularly for girls, who are more likely to attend and remain in school when women teachers are present.
Healthcare impact
The impact could be especially severe in healthcare, where social norms often prevent women from receiving medical services from men.
UNICEF warned that fewer female health workers would directly reduce access to maternal, newborn and child health services, placing women and children at greater risk.
Restrictions on girls’ and women’s education and work are also costing Afghanistan $84 million each year in lost economic output, with losses expected to grow as women and girls remain blocked from classrooms and jobs.
UNICEF continues to support children’s education across the country. In 2025, more than 3.7 million children in public schools received emergency support, while 442,000 children – 66 per cent of them girls – benefited from community-based learning initiatives.
The agency has also built or rehabilitated 232 schools.
“Denying Afghan girls access to secondary education robs an entire nation of its potential – locking girls, their families and their communities into poverty, weakening health outcomes and silencing the economic engine that an educated generation of women could ignite,” Ms. Russell said.
