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UNICEF warns Afghanistan could lose up to 25,000 female health workers, teachers

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HERAT, AFGHANISTAN - JULY 5: Dr. Anisa Mohammadi, a medical doctor working with a UN agency, examines a woman who arrived from the Iranian border the previous night at a clinic inside the IOM transit center on July 5, 2025, in Herat, Afghanistan. The facility provides overnight shelter and temporary assistance to a small number of returnees. According to Dr. Mohammadi, she sees nearly 150 women and children daily, many presenting with trauma-related psychological issues. Over 256,000 Afghans left Iran for Afghanistan last month, according to the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM), ahead of a July 6 deadline imposed by the Iranian government for all undocumented Afghans to leave the country. IOM has been sounding the alarm, saying that critical funding gaps limit their ability to provide assistance, which reaches only 10 per cent of those in need at the border. In July, the number of returnees arriving each day has reached over 24,000, with facilities at Islam Qala that can only accommodate a few hundred. The number of Afghans in Iran had swelled in recent years after the Taliban regained control of the country in 2021. The wave of recent returns, which has been exacerbated by the recent war between Israel and Iran, are overwhelming humanitarian provisions at the border, according to the UN's refugee co-ordinator for Afghanistan. Many NGOs that provide such humanitarian relief in Afghanistan are also grappling with cuts to foreign aid budgets, most notably the cancellation of programs funded by USAID, the United States Agency for International Development. (Photo by Elise Blanchard/Getty Images)

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Kabul: Afghanistan is at risk of losing more than 25,000 female teachers and health workers by 2030 if the Taliban-led country’s restrictions on girls’ education and women’s employment are not lifted, according to a new UNICEF report released on Monday.

The Taliban has banned women from most public sector jobs and limited girls to receiving an education only until the age of 12.

These restrictions, according to the report, have already affected at least 1 million girls – a figure that is expected to double by 2030 if nothing changes. UNICEF called on the Taliban to lift the ban that it imposed after returning to political power in 2021.

UNICEF’s “The Cost of Inaction on Girls’ Education and Women’s Labour Force Participation in Afghanistan” report found a rapid decline in qualified women entering the teaching and healthcare sectors.

Up to 20,000 female teachers and 5,400 health workers could be lost by 2030, according to the report, which estimated that this figure is about 25% of Afghanistan’s 2021 workforce. As many as 9,600 health workers could be lost by 2035, it added.

“Afghanistan cannot afford to lose future teachers, nurses, doctors, midwives, and social workers, who sustain essential services,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said. “This will be the reality if girls continue to be excluded from education.”

Female healthcare workers are required to attend to female patients, and female teachers are preferred for girls in gender-disaggregated schools whenever possible, the report noted.

The growing decrease could have at least a AFN 5.3 billion ($84 million) annual economic impact on Afghanistan’s economy, according to UNICEF, which added that this is the equivalent of about 0.5% of the country’s gross domestic product.

Afghanistan’s de facto authorities should safeguard skills training and allow women to participate in the labor market, UNICEF said.

(DD News)