On February 27, 2025, the Taliban issued a decree most of the world overlooked. Boys in grades 1–9 must wear light blue tunics and white caps; older students must wear white garments with turbans. Really, this is about control, not garments.
Science teachers have been replaced with clerics. Chemistry classes are led by men with no scientific training, but plenty of religious indoctrination. Girls, and the women who once taught them, have been erased from the classroom entirely. Human Rights Watch has already warned of the “irreversible damage” to Afghanistan’s education system. The strategy is clear: indoctrinate boys, erase women, and close off every path to free thought.
A generation is at risk of being programmed into blind obedience.
The Taliban’s Two-Pronged War
The Taliban’s assault is not only about reshaping education, but also about erasing Afghanistan’s cultural memory.
Art is censored. Books are banned. History is rewritten. What cannot be rewritten is destroyed. From uniforms to textbooks, everything is designed to remove curiosity, silence critical thinking, and enforce conformity.
Across the country, innovators are refusing to give in, creating parallel systems of knowledge backed by IBB’s Innovation Hub.
A Parallel System of Resistance
Science and Education
- 🎙 Voice of Science challenges Taliban propaganda with facts, giving Afghans access to scientific knowledge.
- 📚 Underground Schools keep girls learning in secret, ensuring that half of society is not erased.
Memory & Culture
- 🖼 Digitizing historical photo collections protects Afghanistan’s cultural memory by preserving images the Taliban would rather destroy.
- 📰 Afghan Journalist in Exile Network supports reporters who expose truth and resist Taliban media control.
- 👥 Humans of Afghanistan shares personal stories that protect identity and dignity against enforced conformity.
Together, these projects form a counterforce to the Taliban’s effort to indoctrinate an entire generation.
The Stakes
Authoritarian regimes have always known control begins in the classroom. Mao had the Red Guards. Hitler had the Hitler Youth. Stalin had the Komsomol. The Taliban are using the same playbook.
Indoctrination today fuels extremism tomorrow. Protecting Afghan education protects us all.
👉 Help Afghan innovators keep knowledge alive. Your support allows Ideas Beyond Borders to fund underground schools, preserve cultural memory, and protect freedom of thought in one of the world’s most repressive environments.