Afghan female teachers’ careers ended after the Taliban imposed a ban on girls’ education almost three years ago.

A month after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, secondary schools for girls were suspended, resulting in about 1.1 million girls being denied access to formal education and many female teachers losing their jobs, as the new policies only allowed them to teach in girls’ primary schools.

Female teachers from Kabul and other provinces described the sudden and profound impact of this policy on their mental health, leading to severe stress and depression from losing their job and profession.

“When the policy went into force, all female teachers from secondary and high schools were reassigned to elementary schools “where there was a shortage of teachers,” an official from the Afghan Ministry of Education told media sources, declining to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

“In addition, some of them were assigned to mixed schools, where boys and girls study in different shifts, to teach in the girls’ shift. The rest are staying at home,” the official said.

The Taliban have eliminated 14,000 government jobs held by women, the majority of which were teaching positions. 

With women restricted from many workplaces under the Taliban, it’s almost impossible for female heads of the family to support their families.