By Firuza Azizi and Farangis Najibullah
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
November 15, 2026
Zahra was just a few months away from earning her medical degree in Kabul when Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities banned women from universities. Her family moved to Iran so Zahra and her sister could continue their studies but, four years on, both have been excluded from education.
“Our visa expired quickly, and without legal residency permits we were denied permission to study,” she said. Zahra’s real name. like those of other Afghan women in this story, has not been revealed due to security concerns
“Wherever we applied to get education in Iran, we got no positive answer,” she told RFE/RL, speaking via phone from Tehran. “It’s not just me. Many Afghan girls here are facing the same problems.”
Barred from secondary school and university at home, hundreds of girls like Zahra who fled to neighboring Iran and Pakistan to keep learning are increasingly blocked there too, as both Tehran and Islamabad tighten residency rules and deport Afghans in large numbers.
Door Closed At Home
The Taliban suspended girls’ education beyond sixth grade in March 2022 and banned women from universities in December that year. Women were barred from attending medical training courses in December 2024.
The United Nations said in August that about 2.4 million girls in Afghanistan have been denied secondary education since the ultraconservative group returned to power in August 2021.
It added that Afghanistan is the only country where girls and women are formally banned from secondary and higher education.
Roya, another Afghan woman in Tehran, says she left her home country about four years ago because she did not want to give up her education.
“I always wanted to study, to get a master’s degree, and to do something with my life, and that was the reason I left my country,” Roya told RFE/RL.
She applied to several Iranian universities for a master’s program. Despite holding a bachelor’s degree, she was turned down because she did not have a legal residency permit.
Both women say they live with the daily risk of deportation. About 1.9 million Afghans returned from Iran in 2025, including 1.26 million who were deported.
The number of Afghans deported from Iran continued to rise in 2026. Nearly 492,300 had been deported by October 12, according to figures cited by the United Nations.
In March 2025, registration slips that had provided temporary legal status to an estimated 2 million Afghans in Iran expired.
From March 21, 2025, Iranian authorities restricted access to services to foreigners holding valid residency documents, including education,
Iranian officials say the door is not entirely shut.
Nader Yarahmadi, head of the Interior Ministry’s center for foreign nationals and immigrants, told the Iranian Tasnim news agency on September 27 that Afghan children can attend school without documents if their parents hold valid residency permits. Paperwork can be completed during the school year, he said.
The Tehran Times, an English-language Iranian newspaper, has also reported that Afghan children can study alongside Iranian pupils without paying extra tuition fees.
The rules are strict. Foreign nationals must have valid residency documents, enroll in schools in their registered area, and obtain letters of introduction from agencies responsible for migrants, according to Iran’s Education Ministry.
Many Afghans who entered Iran in recent years have expired visas and say obtaining legal residency has become nearly impossible.
Next Door, Same Story
Nilofar was in her final year of high school in Afghanistan when the Taliban’s restrictions ended her education.
She went to Pakistan with relatives to continue her education but was never enrolled in a school after failing to obtain a residency permit. Instead, she attends an English-language course, which does not require an identity card.
“I came to Pakistan to get a proper education. Now, all I can do is take courses from time to time,” says Nilofar, who lives in Hazara Town, a neighborhood of Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s Balochistan Province.
The restrictions have also affected Afghans already pursuing higher education in Pakistan.
Hundreds of Afghan medical students, including many women, are fighting to continue their studies after the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council ordered them to return home and told colleges not to facilitate their enrollment this academic year.
Pakistani courts have issued interim orders protecting students from immediate deportation, but their future remains uncertain.
Pakistani officials say Afghans with valid visas, residency papers, and local identity cards can study in schools and universities.
But rights advocates say this policy fails to address those who lack formal visas due to administrative backlogs or canceled refugee status.
Several Afghan migrants told RFE/RL that they live in constant fear of being arrested in Pakistani police raids since Islamabad began a new wave of crackdowns on undocumented Afghans in 2023.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that more than 2.39 million Afghans had returned from Pakistan between September 2023 and May 16, 2026.
“If I had continued school these past four or five years, I would be in my fourth semester at university now,” Nilofar says. The English course, she adds, “can’t be a substitute for school.”