UN says Afghanistan stands at a difficult crossroad, with female university enrollment at zero

6 November 2026

Afghanistan sits at a difficult crossroad, a senior United Nations official has said, more than five years on from the return of the Taliban to power. Calm and security of a sort are there, but a weak economy, broad curbs on rights and sharp humanitarian need pull against them. The official, Bruno Lemarquis, is Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the country and also its Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator. Restrictions on the freedoms of women and girls remain severe and broad, he said, and they are shut out of much of the space in which people learn, earn and take part in public life. Among the most sensitive education problems anywhere, in his description, is the barring of girls from schooling beyond the primary stage. Secondary education has been refused to more than 2.6 million girls, and not one woman is enrolled in a university at present. Boys too are being kept home by some families because money is short, and Afghan women employees are still not allowed through the doors of United Nations offices in the country. Services are under further strain from the return of 6.7 million nationals, many of them pushed out by neighbouring states that had hosted them.