Over the past five years, women and girls in Afghanistan have been progressively...
Five years after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, the country remains the only place in the world where girls and women are barred from secondary and higher education.
More than 2.2 million girls have been excluded from education beyond primary school, while UNICEF warns that if current restrictions continue until 2030, the total will rise to over four million.1
Yet the statistics only tell part of the story.
For many Afghan girls and young women, education is not simply about going to school. It is about identity, purpose, a future: becoming the person they were meant to be.
In a short SAT-7 video released in 2024, Nazyla, a young Afghan woman, declares through song: “I will give my life, working and battling for freedom.” Her words speak for millions whose lives and opportunities have been systematically reduced through more than 80 decrees targeting women and girls.2
In October 2021, shortly after the Taliban takeover, a 16-year-old girl named Armineh from Afghanistan wrote an open letter to SAT-7 PARS:
“I am 16 years old and I am in 9th grade at school. Before the Taliban came, I was studying English and I was planning after completing my course to prepare for my college entrance exams. But with the current situation, I am unable to attend my courses or to continue my education as before.”
She explained how this was not simply the loss of a classroom:
“On August 15, 2021, the Taliban were able to take over our country, and this was the end of my dreams. I lost hope; it was as if all doors were closed to me.”
Armineh had hoped to become a politician. “But when I consider the limitations that will be put in place by the new regime, I think perhaps there is no future for me,” she said.
Armineh’s words predicted a reality now faced by millions of girls and women across Afghanistan. In a later message to SAT‑7 PARS, she described the emotional and psychological impact of the restrictions:
“There is a feeling of confusion and hopelessness everywhere. The people move around but it is like they have died. They can see the situation, but they have lost even the ability to weep. Their tears have dried up and they are defeated.”
Other women have spoken to SAT-7 of fear, isolation, and the loss of freedom.
Maneli, a 29-year-old woman from Afghanistan, writes: “It is not possible to live in this environment, especially for us who grew up during a time when the Taliban weren’t around. How can we go backwards and live with this barbarism?”
Afsoon describes how even simple activities have become risky. “My sisters and I can’t go out because of the Taliban. Last year we went for a walk into a neighbor’s fields and the Taliban turned up and asked us where we had been and where our [male] chaperone was.”
Maneli remembers growing up “free of the Taliban” and being educated, while Armineh reflects that “after 20 years of struggle to obtain their rights, it only took a few days for all that had been built to be razed to the ground.”
Despite differences in age and circumstance, the themes are remarkably similar: lost opportunities, restricted freedoms, and hopelessness about the future.
As SAT-7 PARS continued hearing from viewers across Afghanistan, one need arose again and again: education.
In response, SAT-7 PARS created Sun of Hope, a Dari-language program designed to help children and young people continue learning despite the barriers. The broadcasts help women, families, and communities across Afghanistan access literacy and learning; even being used in small village classrooms.
The program offers free learning through satellite television, YouTube, and SAT-7 PLUS. Its first two seasons focused on literacy and numeracy skills with a third season planned for broadcast in September.
Other programs on SAT-7 PARS are meeting different needs and, crucially, giving visibility to Afghan women and the issues that are impacting their lives.
Church4Afghanistan – now renamed Hope for Afghanistan – features regular segments presented by Afghan women, a powerful statement in a context where they have been banned from other media and erased from public life. The innovative social media program often includes teaching segments on healthy relationships, marriage, raising children, and biblical models of mutual respect. A new series of reels will unpack the Bible in Hazaragi, one of Afghanistan’s major dialects.
Alongside this, SAT-7 PARS is producing digital campaigns as part of a wider project called Broadcasting Hope to Persian Women and Men via Satellite and Digital Media. These are challenging harmful ideas about control and abuse and promoting respect and partnership in relationships. An upcoming campaign named “Let Her Learn” will highlight a girls’ right to education as well as raise awareness of the devastating personal and societal impact of educational exclusion.
As Afghanistan marks five years under Taliban rule, let’s remember the millions of women and girls whose lives have been so drastically restricted and pray for a better future.
“I am a woman, let me be truly free,” sang Nazyla. “That I may be more loving than yesterday and more joyful tomorrow.”
Sources
1 UNICEF
2 UN Women
Viewer names have been changed for security.
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