By 2030, Afghanistan will lose more than 25,000 female health workers and teachers. This is mainly due to the Taliban-led restrictions in the country on women’s employment and girls’ education.
If the restrictions are not lifted the country by 2030 will lose 25,000 female health workers and teachers by 2030 according to a report released on Monday by UNICEF.
Women have been banned by the Afghan Taliban from most public sector jobs and have also been limited in the education they can get. Girls can now only be educated until the age of 12.
According to the UNICEF reports, these restrictions have already affected at least 1 million girls. It is expected that this figure will be doubled by 2030 unless the restrictions are lifted.
The Taliban government has been urged by the UNICEF to lift the bans they have imposed after they returned to political power in 2021.
UNICEF’s “The Cost of Inaction on Girls’ Education and Women’s Labour Force Participation in Afghanistan” report discovered that in Afghanistan there is a rapid decline in qualified women entering the healthcare and teaching sectors.
According to the report up to 5400 health workers and 20000 female teachers could be lost by 2030.
According to estimations, this figure is 25 per cent of Afghanistan’s 2021 workforce. The report also made a prediction for the year 2035 by which time more than 10,000 women health workers could be lost.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said, “Afghanistan cannot afford to lose future teachers, nurses, doctors, midwives, and social workers, who sustain essential services. This will be the reality if girls continue to be excluded from education.”
The most interesting thing that the report noted was that women health workers are required in Afghanistan for women patients, and similarly, for female students, female teachers are preferred.
