KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban have shut down more than five literacy centers for women in Panjshir province, local sources told KabulNow, in the latest move restricting women’s access to education in Afghanistan.
The literacy centers, established during the former government in the provincial capital and several districts, provided basic education for women who had missed formal schooling. Sources said the closures also resulted in the dismissal of the teachers who ran the programs, many of whom had worked in the centers for several years.
In addition, the Taliban have reportedly shut down a vocational high school in Panjshir that previously offered separate classes for boys and girls.
Local Taliban officials have not commented on the closures.
Similar actions have been reported in other provinces. Last month, the Taliban closed two literacy centers in central Bamyan province, dismissing at least 20 instructors. In Nangarhar province, around 90 female literacy teachers were removed, and programs funded by aid organizations were shut down, with books and teaching materials handed over to the provincial education department.
Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban have barred girls and women above grade six from schools and universities, part of a sweeping set of restrictions that human rights groups have described as “gender apartheid.”
The closures highlight the shrinking opportunities for Afghan women to access even basic education, while the Taliban continue to expand religious and ideological schooling and revise the national curriculum to align it with their ideological agenda.
