Hundreds of Afghan girls and women who left their country to continue their studies are also facing obstacles in Iran and Pakistan because of restrictions on the position and mass expulsions of Afghan citizens.
After the Taliban banned their schooling in Afghanistan, many hoped to continue their education in neighboring countries. But lack of valid documents is also closing these doors, reports Radio Free Europe.
Zahra was just months away from completing medical studies in Kabul when the Taliban banned women from attending university studies. She moved to Iran with her family, but four years later she was unable to study after her visas expired.
Our visa soon expired, and without legal permission, we were denied the right to study, she told REL.
Zahra says she is not the only one facing this problem, as many Afghan girls in Iran are failing to enroll in educational institutions.
Another Afghan woman, Roya, left her country to continue master studies, but Iranian universities rejected the application, despite having a Bachelor degree, due to lack of residence permit.
Meanwhile, some 1.9 million Afghans returned from Iran during 2025, including 1.26 million who were expelled. The deportations continued this year, and by October 12th, according to UN data, nearly 492 thousand and 300 Afghans had been deported.
In March 2025, documents that had provided temporary legal status to some two million Afghans in Iran also expired. Authorities then restricted access to services, including education, for foreigners without valid documents.
Iranian officials say Afghan children can attend school if their parents have valid residence permits. However, many families are failing to meet these conditions.
Even Pakistan remains out of school
Similar situations are being experienced by Niloffar, who was in his senior year of high school in Afghanistan when the Taliban discontinued his education.
She left for Pakistan in the hope that she would continue her schooling, but she failed to enroll in any school because she did not obtain residence permits. Actually, I only attend an English language course.
I came to Pakistan to get a real education. Now, the only thing I can do is follow back and forth, she said about the REL.
Limitations have also affected hundreds of Afghan medical students who already studied in Pakistan. This country’s Medical and Dentary Council ordered their return to Afghanistan and urged the colleges not to allow the census for this academic year.
Pakistani courts have made temporary decisions protecting students from immediate expulsion, but their future remains uncertain.
According to UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration, more than 2,39 million Afghans have returned from Pakistan to the period from September 2023 to May 16th 2026.
Niloffar says that lost years of schooling have directly affected her future.
If I had continued school over the past four or five years, I would now be in the fourth semester of university, she said, adding that the English course cannot replace schooling.
2.4 million girls deprived of education
The Taliban banned the girls from continuing their schooling beyond the sixth grade in March 2022, and in December of that year, they also banned university studies for women. In December 2024, they were also banned from attending medical training courses.
According to the United Nations, some 2.4 million girls in Afghanistan have been deprived of secondary education since the return of the Taliban to power in August 2021.
Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls and women are officially banned from middle and high education.
Source Layer: Dukeagini