In June 2026, CUNY Law’s Human Rights & Gender Justice (HRGJ) Clinic, MADRE, the Gender Persecution in Afghanistan Accountability Working Group (GPWG), and Afghan LGBT Organization completed a report on Afghans’ struggle for education and other rights in Afghanistan and as refugees. The report, Risking a Generation of Illiteracy, will be submitted to several United Nations Special Rapporteurs and key states’ missions in time for World Refugee Day.
The report highlights how Afghans, particularly women and girls, are being denied education through overlapping systems of Taliban repression, refugee exclusion, mass expulsions, and reduced international protection. Drawing on public human rights reporting, news articles, relevant documents, and interviews with Afghan refugees, human rights defenders, and international humanitarian actors, the report examines education deprivation inside Afghanistan and in Pakistan and Iran, where most Afghan refugees have fled.
The report’s contributors include CUNY Law students Genesis Orea ’26, Sandrine Sugi ’26, Ryan Walsh ’26, and Summer Wendt ’26. Orea, Sugi, Walsh, and Wendt worked on the report during their time in the HRGJ Clinic with Visiting Associate Professor Kirby Anwar. The students contributed research on the deprivation of education in Afghanistan, barriers facing Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran, and international human rights and refugee protection standards. This type of faculty-led experiential advocacy and scholarship reflects the immersive clinical programs at CUNY Law.
“One of the most striking findings from my clinical work was that many Afghan women and human rights defenders are no longer choosing between safety and danger; they are choosing between different forms of danger. Our research showed how violence, intimidation, and retaliation can come from homes, communities, and those exercising authority. What stayed with me is that the institutions people ordinarily turn to for protection are now another source of fear. Documenting these abuses is an essential step toward recognition, accountability, and justice.”
— Ryan Walsh ‘26
The report observes that the Taliban’s deprivation of women’s and girls’ right to education past sixth grade is nearing its fifth year, with long-term consequences for Afghan students, families, and communities. Afghan students who have fled to transit countries also face discrimination, limited educational access, and deportation threats, while students inside Afghanistan face limited access to quality education.
Inside Afghanistan, Afghan civil society advocates, including women human rights defenders and teachers, continue to create pathways for learning through underground schools, informal classrooms, online instruction, and shared digital resources. But the report details how these efforts remain constrained by limits on internet and electricity access, lack of accreditation, surveillance concerns, and dangers faced by educators, students, and families.
“We are sending this report to UN Special Rapporteurs to encourage them to remind states of their obligations under international human rights and refugee law. These include protecting Afghan refugees’ rights to safety and education. We are also sending the report to key states to call for an end to deportations, and for safe and regular pathways to resettlement. We are inviting them to engage with Afghan human rights defenders and UN experts on these themes during our upcoming World Refugee Day webinar.
— Professor Kirby Anwar
The report also traces how Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran face barriers to education, legal status, housing, work, and safety. One interviewee, an Afghan women’s advocate who fled to Pakistan, tried unsuccesfullly to enroll her children in school. She began teaching children in the ad hoc camp where she lived with other refugees, and continued providing online classes after receiving asylum.
“Wherever she moved, there was never a shortage of Afghan refugee children and young adults seeking schooling.” — From the report’s account of an Afghan women’s advocate interviewed for Risking a Generation of Illiteracy
As Iran and Pakistan increase deportations and expulsions, and as wealthier democracies reduce access to asylum and resettlement, the report argues that migration policies are reinforcing the Taliban’s denial of education for Afghan women and girls. For those returned to Afghanistan, girls and women are again barred from education beyond sixth grade, while others face serious risks tied to Taliban surveillance, punishment, and discrimination.
The report calls on states to halt forced returns, deportations, and mass expulsions of Afghan refugees and asylum seekers; protect Afghan refugees from detention, violence, extortion, and abuse; ensure education access regardless of legal status; expand safe pathways, including humanitarian visas and family reunification; and support accountability for Taliban rights violations and alleged crimes against humanity.
Afghans have endured decades of war, invasion, and grave rights violations that have driven many to seek safety across borders. World Refugee Day is a reminder that human-made crises require human-centered solutions. We are releasing this report to call for governments to protect Afghan refugees, defend the right to education, and ensure Afghan women and other persecution survivors shape the international response.” — Professor Kirby Anwar
The HRGJ Clinic uses international criminal law and human rights law to promote gender justice. The clinic’s diverse docket of projects and initiatives focuses on conflict and war, sexual and gender-based violence, anti-trafficking work, reproductive rights, LGBTQI+ rights, economic and social rights, and children’s rights. By working closely with faculty through the clinical seminar and project work, HRGJ students develop a sound understanding of international human rights and sharpen lawyering skills necessary for effective law reform-oriented advocacy work in both United States and international contexts.