Ambassador Haidari Links Afghanistan’s Education Crisis to Gender Apartheid, Radicalization, and Mass Displacement
By Staff Writer
London, June 27, 2025 — The collapse of Afghanistan’s education system under Taliban rule is not only an unprecedented human rights violation but a key driver of mass displacement, youth radicalization, and regional instability, said Ambassador Ashraf Haidari, President of Displaced International (DI), at a major conference on Friday.
Speaking at Educational Crises in Afghanistan: Challenges, Consequences, and Pathways, co-hosted by MOSAIC and the Afghanistan Development Academy–UK (ADA-UK) at Bayes Business School, Haidari delivered a searing indictment of the Taliban’s “gender apartheid regime” and its weaponization of education. He warned that unless the international community takes decisive action, the consequences will reverberate far beyond Afghanistan’s borders.
“The Taliban have institutionalized gender apartheid as a core state policy,” Haidari said. “This is not just a cultural practice. It is a deliberate political strategy to exclude, silence, and control half the population while brainwashing the other half with extremist dogma.”
A Systematic Assault on Education
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have banned girls and women from attending primary, secondary, and tertiary education. Simultaneously, more than 20,000 unregulated madrassas have sprung up across the country, indoctrinating Afghan boys with extremist ideologies and accelerating the collapse of public education.
“This is not just an educational crisis—it’s a security crisis,” Haidari stressed. “It is creating a generation raised on radicalization and forcing families to flee in search of safety and opportunity.”
He argued that the combination of mass educational exclusion and ideological indoctrination has become one of the key drivers of forced displacement and irregular migration from Afghanistan.
Historical Roots of a Deepening Crisis
Tracing Afghanistan’s educational trajectory, Haidari explained that formal education systems were only introduced in the 1920s and never fully took root due to weak state capacity, conflict, and poverty. By the 1950s, literacy rates and access to education were among the lowest in the world. These deficiencies persisted even during periods of international aid and political reconstruction.
During the Soviet era in the 1980s, urban centers experienced modest educational gains, while rural areas remained largely unaffected. Meanwhile, Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan became breeding grounds for extremist ideologies through foreign-funded madrassas.
“The politicization of education was no accident,” Haidari said. “It was a deliberate, externally funded strategy that turned Afghan children into ideological foot soldiers—laying the foundation for the extremist networks that plague the region to this day.”
The 1990s under the Taliban witnessed a decline in all educational indicators, including access, quality, and gender parity. The post-2001 era brought renewed hope with rising school enrollments and donor-funded reforms, particularly for girls, but these gains were fragile and largely urban-centric.
“The system never became resilient enough to withstand political shocks,” Haidari noted. “It was a house of cards—top-heavy and disconnected from grassroots realities.”
International Inaction and Political Failure
Haidari sharply criticized the international community’s passive response to the Taliban’s ongoing repression. “What we are witnessing is not a failure of resources—it is a failure of political will,” he said. “The UN system has allowed the Taliban to violate its Charter, conventions, and resolutions with impunity, while powerful states hide behind strategic fatigue.”
He warned that piecemeal humanitarian aid and education-in-exile initiatives, while important, are not enough to reverse the trajectory of collapse.
“Unless the status quo is rationalized through a meaningful conflict resolution process—led by the United Nations and sponsored by the United States, with the support of its allies including the UK and Afghanistan’s neighbors—we will never achieve the sustainable political settlement needed to form a legitimate, inclusive government,” Haidari asserted.
Such a government, he said, is essential not only to rebuild the education system but also to restore basic governance, uphold human rights, and stem the tide of displacement.
A Moral and Strategic Imperative
Haidari concluded his remarks with a direct appeal to international conscience and leadership.
“We cannot claim to defend human rights while tolerating the complete erasure of women from Afghan society,” he said. “We cannot claim to promote global security while ignoring the radicalization of millions of youth. And we cannot pretend to support displaced populations while enabling the very conditions that force them to flee.”
He urged the global community—particularly institutions like UNESCO and states with historical involvement in Afghanistan—to move beyond rhetorical condemnation and engage in sustained diplomatic, political, and financial efforts to restore inclusive education and governance in the country.
“Education is not a luxury. It is the frontline of freedom,” Haidari concluded. “To fail Afghanistan’s children today is to forfeit our moral authority tomorrow.”
In closing, Ambassador Haidari extended his heartfelt appreciation to Mr. Zalmai Nishat, Executive Chair of MOSAIC, and Mr. Ahmad Ershad Sediqi, Founder and President of ADA, for their leadership in organizing this timely and impactful conference. He commended their continued advocacy for Afghanistan’s future and their commitment to preserving access to education as a universal right in the face of growing adversity.
