UNICEF: Afghanistan lost $500 million in a year because it did not allow girls to continue their studies

The Taliban’s ban on secondary education for girls in Afghanistan caused $500 million in losses last year as the Islamists took power in Kabul. That’s what research is United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

This figure represents 2.5 percent of Afghanistan’s annual GDP, in addition to depriving girls and young women of their right to education. According to the study, if the three million girls currently in high school could complete their education and participate in the labor market, girls and women could contribute at least $5.4 billion to the national economy.

However, these estimates do not take into account the non-financial consequences of denying girls access to education in Afghanistansuch as the future shortage of female teachers, doctors and nurses, the resulting impact on the decline in girls’ primary school attendance and the increase in health care costs associated with teenage pregnancy, warns UNICEF.

They also fail to take into account the broader benefits of education, such as overall academic success, lower child marriage rates, and reduced infant mortality.

“The March 23 decision to prevent girls from returning to high school was shocking and deeply disappointing. It not only violates girls’ basic right to education, but also exposes them to greater anxiety and greater risk of exploitation and abuse, including child trafficking. forced and early marriages,” said Mohamed Ayoya, UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan.

Even before the Taliban came to power last August 15, over 4.2 million children in Afghanistan were out of school, 60% of them girls. While the potential cost of not educating boys and girls is high in terms of lost earnings, not educating girls is especially costly because of the relationship between educational success and delayed marriage and childbearing, their participation in the labor market, and their own decision-making. the future, the greater the investment in the health and education of their children in the future.

The analysis also shows that Afghanistan will not be able to recover the GDP lost during the transition or reach its real potential productivity if it does not respect girls’ right to access and complete secondary education.

“UNICEF wants every girl and boy in Afghanistan to go to school and learn,” Ayoya said. “We will not stop until we reach this goal. It’s not just that education is the right of every child. It is the basis for the future growth of Afghanistan,” he stressed.

Shooting into the air to disperse the women’s demonstration

The Taliban brutally dispersed a demonstration of women who demanded the right to work and education in Kabul this Saturday, with shots in the air and rifle butts, almost a year after the Islamists came to power in Afghanistan.

About 40 women chanting “Bread, work and freedom!” They paraded in front of the Ministry of Education, but after about five minutes of marching, a group of Taliban militants dispersed them by firing bursts into the air.

(According to Europa Press and AFP)