Nearly five years after the Taliban barred girls from attending school beyond the sixth grade, a network of secret classrooms run largely by Afghan women is keeping thousands of girls in lessons anyway. The schools operate out of private homes, shopfronts and other hidden spaces, always under the threat of discovery.
The ban, imposed within weeks of the Taliban's return to power in August 2021, has left what Human Rights Watch described as 'a generation of girls without formal education'. In a statement marking 1,000 days since the ban took effect, the organisation said Afghan society will never fully recover from the loss of so many future female professionals.
