1.2.6. Impact on the education sector
A main aim of the Taliban Supreme Leader is reportedly to implement sharia in order to ‘purify’ Afghan society.270 The education sector has been impacted by efforts to eradicate some secular subjects,271 while religious topics have been expanded272 and promoted.273 Women and girls have gradually been restricted from accessing education, starting with secondary education in 2022,274 followed by university education later that year,275 and most recently, from attending medical education in December 2024.276 The de facto authorities have been working to revise the school curriculum for private and public schools,277 removing topics deemed ‘against’ Islamic rites and Afghan culture.278 According to Rahimi, the curriculum has not been completely overhauled, but rather, more recent additions have been removed, such as social subject or civic education related to democracy themes.279 Nevertheless, universities have been instructed to stop teaching 18 subjects considered to be in conflict with sharia, including topics on gender, women,280 democracy and human rights.281 Human Rights Watch reported that the absence of female teachers had led to a reduced range of subjects being taught to boys, and that subjects such as sports, art, civics and culture had been replaced with religious studies.282
In Afghanistan, madrassas are religious institutions that have historically played an important role in educating children.283 At the time of writing, madrassas were the only option for many girls and women to receive education after primary school.284 Madrassas provide religious education, but generally also teach non-religious subjects,285 such as mathematics, science, physics, geography, and languages.286 Before the Taliban takeover, about 5 000 madrassas were formally registered with the then government,287 although thousands more operated without registration.288 The de facto authorities have made efforts to regulate the madrassa sector,289 including by registering informal madrassas.290 These efforts have led up to almost 23 000 madrassas being formally registered as of August 2025, according to the de facto authorities.291 Only a limited number of these are newly established institutions – about 316 according to the Afghanistan Human Rights Center (AHRC).292 Most madrassas continue to be privately run,293 although a few public so-called jihadi madrassas have been established.294
Some commentators worry that madrassas may fuel extremism,295 and function as ‘centres for religious indoctrination’.296 The Taliban have been using the education sector to reinforce their ideology within the young generation,297 but Afghanistan experts Haroun Rahimi and Andrew Watkins noted that the name jihadi madrassa has caused ‘profound confusion’ as the term is associated with violent religious extremists. Although Rahimi and Watkins could not ‘rule out the extent to which some jihadi madrassas may serve as conduits for future employment in the DFA offices, including enlistment in DFA security forces’, they did not find evidence for these madrassas engaging in militarised training or education. They also noted that the jihadi madrassas apply the same curriculum as other madrassas.298 On the contrary, CNN reported that public madrassas almost exclusively teach religious subjects.299 AHRC reported that male students of some public madrassas had been promised ‘good positions and jobs in government’ upon their graduation.300 According to individuals interviewed by Rahimi and Watkins, people educated in madrassas were easy to recruit into the de facto administration, as they often support the Taliban, although governmental service was not mandatory.301
- 270
International analyst (A), interview 8–9 June 2023, and email communication, 10 October 2023; Washington Post (The), Taliban forging religious emirate in Afghanistan with draconian Islamic law, 18 February 2023, url
- 271
RFE/RL, The Azadi Briefing: Taliban Intensifies Efforts To Eradicate Secular Education In Afghanistan, 14 July 2023, url
- 272
UN General Assembly and UN Security Council, The situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security, 18 September 2023, url, para. 3; Rahimi, H., online interview, 30 October 2025
- 273
AW, Afghanistan’s madrasa system under the Taliban, 7 November 2023, url
- 274
UN General Assembly and UN Security Council, The situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security, 18 September 2023, url, para. 18
- 275
TOLOnews, Lecturer Rips Up His Certificates to Protest Ban on Women’s Education, 1 January 2023, url
- 276
HRW, Afghanistan’s Taliban Ban Medical Training for Women, 3 December 2024, url
- 277
TOLOnews, Nadim: We Want Youth to Be Professionals, Not ‘Talib’, 27 May 2025, url
- 278
Ariana News, Latest NewsPrimary school curriculum revised, 16 January 2024, url
- 279
Rahimi, H., online interview, 30 October 2025. The interview was conducted by the EUAA in cooperation with the Belgian and Romanian COI units.
- 280
BBC News, Taliban ban books written by women from Afghan universities, 19 September 2025, url
- 281
New York Times (The), Taliban Bans Books by Women in Afghanistan’s Universities, 19 September 2025, url
- 282
HRW, “Schools are Failing Boys Too”, The Taliban’s Impact on Boys’ Education in Afghanistan, 6 December 2023, url
- 283
AW, Afghanistan’s madrasa system under the Taliban, 7 November 2023, url; Akram, S., Living a Mullah’s Life (2): The evolution of Islamic knowledge among village clerics, AAN, 20 July 2025, url
- 284
Guardian (The), ‘Send your daughters or you get no aid’: the Taliban are making religious schools girls’ only option, 22 September 2025, url
- 285
Rahimi, H., online interview, 11 September 2024. The interview was conducted by the EUAA in cooperation with the COI unit of the Swedish Migration Agency and Landinfo – the Norwegian COI Centre; AW, Afghanistan’s madrasa system under the Taliban, 7 November 2023, url
- 286
AW, Afghanistan’s madrasa system under the Taliban, 7 November 2023, url
- 287
AW, Afghanistan’s madrasa system under the Taliban, 7 November 2023, url; VOA, Religious education surges under Taliban as secular schooling languishes, 8 October 2024, url
- 288
Rahimi, H. and Watkins, A., The Taliban’s Dynamic Efforts to Integrate and Regulate Madrasas And the Motives for Doing So, RWI, May 2025, url, p. 7
- 289
Rahimi, H. and Watkins, A., The Taliban’s Dynamic Efforts to Integrate and Regulate Madrasas And the Motives for Doing So, RWI, May 2025, url, p. 7
- 290
Akram, S., Living a Mullah’s Life (2): The evolution of Islamic knowledge among village clerics, AAN, 20 July 2025, url
- 291
CNN, ‘They do not teach us what we need’: Inside the expansion of religious schools for girls across Afghanistan, 4 August 2025, url
- 292
AHRC, Report on Access To Education for Women under the Taliban, December 2024, url, p. 22
- 293
Rahimi, H. and Watkins, A., The Taliban’s Dynamic Efforts to Integrate and Regulate Madrasas And the Motives for Doing So, RWI, May 2025, url, p. 7; AHRC, Report on Access To Education for Women under the Taliban, December 2024, url, pp. 22–23
- 294
AW, Afghanistan’s madrasa system under the Taliban, 7 November 2023, url
- 295
VOA, Religious education surges under Taliban as secular schooling languishes, 8 October 2024, url
- 296
Al Jazeera, Religious schools fill gaps amid Afghanistan’s fractured education system, 7 August 2025, url
- 297
Saleem, M. A. and Semple, M., Peace Matrix for Afghanistan, PeaceRep, 11 November 2024, url, p. 8
- 298
Rahimi, H. and Watkins, A., The Taliban’s Dynamic Efforts to Integrate and Regulate Madrasas And the Motives for Doing So, RWI, May 2025, url, pp. 14–15
- 299
CNN, ‘They do not teach us what we need’: Inside the expansion of religious schools for girls across Afghanistan, 4 August 2024, url
- 300
AHRC, Report on Access To Education for Women under the Taliban, December 2024, url, p. 26
- 301
Rahimi, H. and Watkins, A., The Taliban’s Dynamic Efforts to Integrate and Regulate Madrasas And the Motives for Doing So, RWI, May 2025, url, p. 24