Five years after the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, their restrictions on women and girls have created a severe human-capital crisis with long-term consequences for Afghanistan. The most damaging measure has been the exclusion of girls from secondary school and women from universities, making Afghanistan the only country where secondary and higher education are formally prohibited for females. This means that an entire generation is losing skills, qualifications and professional experience that would otherwise contribute to the country’s teachers, doctors, entrepreneurs and public institutions. The education restrictions also reduce women’s future independence and increase risks such as early marriage, early childbearing and maternal mortality. Women’s wellbeing has deteriorated as restrictions on mobility, employment and participation in public life have increased isolation and psychological distress. Economically, Afghanistan is losing a large part of its potential labor force, as many women are excluded from education and employment. This reduces productivity, household incomes, entrepreneurship and long-term economic growth. These policies are weakening both women’s wellbeing and Afghanistan’s long-term economic development.
The Journal of Population Economics has recently published a study dealing with some of the economic consequences of mis-education of women in Afghanistan:
Najam, R., Patrinos, H.A. & Kattan, R.B.
The mis-education of women in Afghanistan: from wage premiums to economic losses.
Journal of Population Economics 39, 21 (2026). OPEN – FREE – ACCESS.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-026-01148-0
Abstract. This study examines the private monetary rate of return to schooling in Afghanistan. We use two novel datasets—a series of nationally representative household surveys (2007, 2014, 2020) and administrative data on public employees in 2018—and apply OLS, Heckman selection correction, and instrumental-variables estimation to measure returns to education. We find that one additional year of schooling, on average, is associated with a 3 to 7 percent increase in monthly income for wage earners, with higher returns for women. The schooling premium extends beyond the public sector into the broader labor market, where the gender pay gap is noticeable. We show that bans on women’s employment and schooling can translate into substantial income losses at both individual and national levels. These findings contribute to the literature on the economics of education in conflict-affected settings and underscore the role of sustained human capital investment.
