With girls above the sixth grade being banned from attending school, Human Rights Watch has said that the international community has not taken meaningful action to lift the Taliban's restrictions.

The organisation called on the world to exert more pressure on the Taliban to lift the ban on girls' education.

On September 17, 2021, more than a month after the group came to power, the Taliban's Ministry of Education announced in a statement the reopening of schools in Afghanistan, but called only male students and male teachers to schools.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Taliban government, announced that the closure of schools above the sixth grade for girls is "temporary" and will be reopened when suitable conditions are provided.

Since then, about 1,096 days have passed and girls above the sixth grade have not gone to school.

In a statement on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said that the Taliban, like the first term of their rule, when they deprived girls of education for five years, this time are wasting "precious time" of girls in the most critical years of their personal and academic growth, learning, and development.

"Girls who dropped out of school during those years [the first round of Taliban rule] mostly never fully recovered, and girls who dropped out of school today will also face lifelong and intergenerational consequences," the organisation said in a statement.

The human rights organisation also said that despite the ban on girls' education above the sixth grade in Afghanistan, there is still a need for governments and international institutions to take meaningful steps to lift the ban.

Human Rights Watch has called on the Taliban to provide safe and quality education to all girls.
"Donor countries should support communities that seek to protect girls' right to education and fund online and underground education initiatives implemented by women," the organisation's statement said.