Five years after the Taliban reclaimed reclaimed Afghanistan, 2.4 million girls remain locked out of secondary school, wiping away decades of progress and leaving a generation of young women without access to the classroom.Afghanistan is now the only country in the world that formally prohibits girls and women from receiving an education beyond the primary level, according to UNESCO, which issued a new call Tuesday for the "immediate and unconditional" restoration of their right to education.The United Nations agency warned that the consequences of the Taliban's policies now reach far beyond the classroom, with women barred from most paid jobs and public-facing professions and facing restrictions on their ability to travel without a male guardian.MOSCOW, TALIBAN FORGE MILITARY ALLIANCE IN POWER GRAB AFTER US AFGHANISTAN EXIT: REPORTSAfghan girls participate in a lesson at Tajrobawai Girls High School, in Herat, Afghanistan, Thursday, Nov.25, 2021.
(AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)"Women have been erased from public life, and as a new generation of girls grows without an education, their future becomes increasingly dark," UNESCO said in a statement.The Taliban swept back into power on Aug.15, 2021, as U.S.
and NATO forces withdrew from Afghanistan after two decades of war.The Taliban soon barred girls from secondary schools and later expanded the restrictions to universities, employment and other areas of public life.Despite years of pressure from the United Nations, humanitarian groups, human rights advocates and several Islamic countries, the Taliban has refused to lift the education restrictions and has maintained that the issue is a domestic matter, according to The Associated Press.IRAN AGREES NOT TO EXECUTE EIGHT WOMEN TIED TO ANTI-REGIME PROTESTS AFTER TRUMP'S PUBLIC APPEALThe Taliban has refused to lift its education restrictions on girls and women despite longstanding international pressure.( UNESCO/Navid Rahi)The impact has been a dramatic reversal of the e...