Afghanistan week 2026: Keeping higher education alive in Afghanistan

As part of the Afghanistan Week 2026, SAIH and the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee invite you to a seminar on how higher education can be kept alive for women in Afghanistan. Join us at Kulturhuset on 28 October. Register here.

For almost five years, girls and women in Afghanistan have been denied access to education beyond primary school. Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls and women are formally excluded from secondary and higher education.

More than 2.4 million girls are currently unable to attend secondary school, while women have been barred for universities since 2022.

Today’s crisis is deep, and rooted in a political battleground over modern education, shaped by struggles over curriculum tradition, ideology and religion.

But education has not stopped.

Across Afghanistan and beyond its borders, students, educators and organizations are developing alternative ways for women and girls to continue learning. From community-based and home-based education to online learning, non-formal education and opportunities to study abroad.

What can these pathways achieve, and how can they be sustained?

This seminar will explore the current status of education in Afghanistan and what can be done differently moving forward.

We ask: How are alternative pathways keeping learning alive? What does quality and relevant education look like in the current context? And what can donors, policymakers and education actors do to support these efforts?

Program

The program opens with a student perspective on why education for women matter, followed by Mustafa Himmati (NAC) on (de)colonisation of education in Afghanistan, before Torunn Wimpelmann (CMI and SAIH) presents new research on education pathways for Afghan women.

The program culminates in a panel discussion on keeping higher education alive in Afghanistan, bringing together:

• Terje Magnussønn Watterdal, Country Director of the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee in Kabul.
• Dr. Lauryn Oates, Executive Director of Right to Learn Afghanistan and Co-Chair of the Alliance for the Education of Women in Afghanistan.
• Dr. Yahia Baiza, Senior Research Associate at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, and former lead on the development og Afghanistan`s first National Education Strategic Plan.
• Torunn Wimpelmann, Research Director at the Chr. Michelsen Institute, who has also worked with SAIH on research into education pathways for Afghan women.

The panel will be moderated by Rachel Reid, a human rights specialist, writer and researcher on Afghanistan at the Afghanistan Analyst Network (AAN).

The event is organised by SAIH and the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee (NAC) as part of Afghanistan Week 2026.