The 1404 Kankor exam results have exposed the devastating impact of the Afghan Taliban’s hardline policies—not only on education but also on national stability and civil liberties. As security deteriorates and dissent is violently suppressed, Afghanistan faces a dual crisis: the erasure of women from public life and the tightening grip of authoritarian rule.
Not a single girl appears among the top scorers in this year’s Kankor exam, and all leading candidates come from Kabul’s private and religious institutions—underscoring the regime’s failure to provide equal educational opportunities across provinces. The rural majority and female population have been systematically sidelined.
The Taliban’s “temporary” ban on girls’ education beyond grade six has now hardened into a structural policy of gender apartheid. Meanwhile, women who protested these injustices were beaten, jailed, and silenced. Human rights activists have been forced underground, and the media operates under constant threat.
The security situation remains volatile, with armed groups freely operating, citizens living in fear, and governance rooted in repression rather than reform. The education system, once a path to progress, has become a tool of exclusion.
International bodies including the UN, UNICEF, and UNESCO have warned that this combination of educational collapse, state violence, and rising insecurity is pushing Afghanistan toward isolation, deeper poverty, and irreversible brain drain. The Kankor results are not a celebration of merit—they are a grim testament to the Taliban’s assault on equality, freedom, and the future of an entire nation.
