KABUL (Dispatches) — “I wanted to be a doctor,” a teenage girl at a Taliban-approved madrasa in Kabul quietly says, before quickly stopping herself. 
Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, the doors to secondary and higher education for girls have been shut tight, closing hopes for many young women across the country.
Afghanistan remains the only nation worldwide where girls and women are legally barred from attending general secondary schools and universities. Instead, most girls over the age of 12 must turn to religious schools, or madrasas, which operate under Taliban supervision. These institutions focus predominantly on Taliban-vetted studies, with limited teaching of science or languages.
Inside the Naji-e-Bashra madrasa on Kabul’s outskirts, where CNN recently gained rare access, dozens of girls recite Qur’anic verses daily. 
The curriculum here, dictated by the Taliban’s Ministry of Education, emphasizes religion and restricts subjects deemed inconsistent with the regime’s interpretation of Islam and Afghan cultural “honor.” 
Although private madrasas like Naji-e-Bashra provide slightly broader courses, public madrasas remain strictly religious.
Many Afghan girls and women see madrasas as inadequate substitutes for the diverse education they accessed before the Taliban’s return. 
Nargis (a pseudonym), a 23-year-old Kabul woman who was studying economics at a private university, now teaches girls in secret to keep the flame of education alive. 
After the Taliban closed schools, she gathered about 45 girls in her home for clandestine lessons in mathematics, science, and English — risking arrest and harassment.
Nargis was briefly jailed after a Taliban raid on her home but remains determined to continue. She laments the loss of opportunities for herself and her sisters, who endured hunger and despair when their school closed.
The cancellation of international aid programs has further dimmed hopes. USAID’s withdrawal of funding for secret schools and online scholarships has forced many Afghan women to abandon their dreams, leaving them to question their futures under Taliban rule.
As Nargis asks, “For what are we trying so hard? For what job and what future?”