By Neelapu Shanti

“Education is a human right, and a springboard to greater opportunity, dignity, and peace.” - United Nations

Afghanistan has been championed in education in the past. During the reign of King Amanullah Khan, the first girls’ schools were opened in 1921. In spite of progress made over the past decades, today’s stark reality is the bleak picture of empty classrooms. The Taliban banned Girls from learning. And still, the world looks away.

Aimed at promoting youth-led policy, inclusive learning, and SDG4 progress to transform education systems for a sustainable, equitable future, the world observed the International Day of Education on 24 January 2026. And that dire picture has grown bleaker with 2.2 million Afghan women and girls being out of classrooms for nearly five years since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021, the largest disruption of women’s education in the history of Afghanistan.

As the adage goes, “If you educate a man, you educate an individual. But if you educate a woman, you educate a nation.” The aspirations encompassed in SDG 4 are the lifelines to deliver peace, security, and sustainable development, contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals encapsulated in SDG 4-Quality Education, SDG 5-Gender Equality, and SDG 8-Decent Work and Economic Growth. (taken from SDG Goals).

The disrupted education of 2.2 million Afghan girls is not only a collective reflection of the international community’s failure, but its stand is falling behind on its commitments to equity and access towards realizing SDG 4. The very tenets of SDG are questionable as Afghan women and girls are deprived of their right to quality education, deliberately pushed towards the brink of learning losses, eroding livelihood opportunities, and creating obstructions for meaningful strides in the right direction.

As the slogan, ‘Let Afghan Girls Learn,’ went unheeded, the question is, where do Afghan girls go from here?  

Where Lies the Problem?

As Afghanistan’s crisis grew heavier, women’s public space faded away, and access to their basic rights worsened dramatically under the Taliban dispensation- the UN calls it ‘gender apartheid’. By normalising the Taliban, over 39 embassies have reopened in the countries since 2021. Why this formal engagement without securing the reversal of an indefinite education ban and the obligation of inclusive government as agreed in the Doha peace deal? The UN warned that the restrictions on women’s rights will have lasting negative consequences for economic recovery, poverty reduction, and the long-term socioeconomic development and stability of Afghanistan. The world needs to understand that, without strengthening democratic institutions, engagement with the Taliban, where millions of girls are banned from school, is not diplomacy but complicity.

India

Afghans have always viewed India as a reliable partner, especially during difficult times, but since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan by force in 2021, India shifted its policy unconscientiously, lacking moral standing, guided by political convenience.

In light of the education ban, Afghan women expected India’s President, Droupadi Murmu, a symbol of ‘Nari Shakti’ (women's empowerment), to stand with them. This deafening silence mirrors and magnifies a moral fracture and retreat from a position where Afghans considered India as their education destination for many decades. The absence of women’s voices, especially in leadership positions, weakens the collective capacity to address the enduring challenges that cause irreparable harm to the global good. India’s trajectory in the Global South and its credibility in Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) advocacy are in stark contrast to the “Nari Shakti” narrative.

India has had no utterances on inclusivity and women’s rights issues at the United Nations Security Council for the last three years, but termed as “business as usual” -shifting its position, which the Indian government has previously expressed concern about women's rights under Taliban rule. At a press conference in 2022 interview Arindam Bagchi, then Spokesperson for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, India's position on the issue:  – “We have always emphasized the importance of establishing an inclusive and representative government that respects the rights of all Afghans and ensures the equal rights of women and girls to participate in all aspects of Afghan society, including access to higher education”. Where are those commitments gone today?

Instead of investing in educational opportunities and putting education in every Afghan learner’s hand, India closed down the only refugee school- the Syed Jamaluddin Afghan High School in New Delhi in 2023. Founded in 1994, the Afghan refugee school strengthened the educational capacities of the refugee children. Why this change? 

What should India do?

India increased its development assistance to Afghanistan in the Union Budget 2026-27. This revised budget in Taliban-led Afghanistan is directed towards humanitarian assistance, infrastructure support, and economic stabilization, but astonishingly, it was reduced in 2022.

On X, dated Feb 8, 2026, Ambassador M. Ashraf Haidari stated “A Regional Compact for Afghanistan: Why Neighbors Must Act Together to Secure Stability, arguing that Afghanistan’s crisis already spills across borders through militant pipelines, refugee flows, trafficking and smuggling networks, illicit finance, and water disputes that sharpen in dry seasons. That is why a humanitarian-only posture is not enough: it keeps people alive, but it cannot restore legitimacy, rebuild institutions, or create incentives for rule-based governance. Renewed my call for Afghanistan’s neighbors to converge on a regional compact for durable stability anchored in three deliverables: noninterference, non-use of Afghan territory for militant proxies, and support for an inclusive political process that restores legitimacy -- backed by multilateral sequencing through the United Nations and regional leverage, with calibrated pressure and incentives”.

India’s ‘Neighbourhood First Policy’ can only be meaningful and fruitful when geopolitical engagement translates into human rights considerations that reinstate Afghan women’s basic rights- a dignified way to unlock human potential, to give a boost to Afghanistan’s economy that would automatically lower the dependency on aid and switch to a self-reliant mode.

Supporting Afghan women can help achieve SDG goals, build more inclusive communities, and forge peace for lasting positive change from the ground up.

A Story- a Lesson for the World to Learn

The story of a 13-year-old Afghan girl, Noria, gained traction on social media. Her misery disguised as a boy embodied her resilience. The denial of the right to work under the Taliban-led Afghanistan is an affront to dignity and justice for women and girls. To feed many mouths, Noria worked in a restaurant in Kabul.

Meanwhile, the looming threat grows for Afghan women, but this raises questions about why the international community's principles and engagements with the Taliban are not grounded in human rights, including diplomatic spaces without any accountability.

India’s ‘Nari Shakti’ framework must champion in its efforts by not overlooking the education corridors where dreams thrive, especially by promoting girls' education; otherwise, women empowerment narratives as envisaged in ‘Nari Shakti ’ stand fundamentally compromised. 
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Neelapu Shanti is a New Delhi Based international affairs research analyst, writer, journalist and Indo-Afghan analyst. MA in International Relations Post-Graduate in Journalism.

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The article does not reflect the official opinion of the AISS.