Home（https://rukhshana.com/en/）
News（https://rukhshana.com/en/category/news-en/）
Reports（https://rukhshana.com/en/category/reports-en/）
Analysis（https://rukhshana.com/en/category/analysis-en/）
Discussion（https://rukhshana.com/en/category/discussion/）
Photos（https://rukhshana.com/en/category/photos/）
About（https://rukhshana.com/en/about-rukhshana/）
Board of Trustees（https://rukhshana.com/en/rukhshana-media-board-of-trustees/）
About Zahra Joya（https://rukhshana.com/en/about-zahra-joya/）
Editorial Guidelines（https://rukhshana.com/en/rukhshana-media-editorial-guidelines/）
How can you help（https://rukhshana.com/en/how-can-you-help/）
Contact Us（https://rukhshana.com/en/contact-us/）
Job Opportunities（https://rukhshana.com/en/jobs/）
فارسی（https://rukhshana.com/）
پشتو（https://rukhshana.com/ps）
Donate（https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=95H7SQ7FENMC4）
No Result
View All Result
Home（https://rukhshana.com/en/）
News（https://rukhshana.com/en/category/news-en/）
Reports（https://rukhshana.com/en/category/reports-en/）
Analysis（https://rukhshana.com/en/category/analysis-en/）
Discussion（https://rukhshana.com/en/category/discussion/）
Photos（https://rukhshana.com/en/category/photos/）
About（https://rukhshana.com/en/about-rukhshana/）
Board of Trustees（https://rukhshana.com/en/rukhshana-media-board-of-trustees/）
About Zahra Joya（https://rukhshana.com/en/about-zahra-joya/）
Editorial Guidelines（https://rukhshana.com/en/rukhshana-media-editorial-guidelines/）
How can you help（https://rukhshana.com/en/how-can-you-help/）
Contact Us（https://rukhshana.com/en/contact-us/）
Job Opportunities（https://rukhshana.com/en/jobs/）
No Result
View All Result
Donate（https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=95H7SQ7FENMC4）
Afghanistan’s female teachers put up with low pay to defy Taliban
October 5, 2026（https://rukhshana.com/en/afghanistans-female-teachers-put-up-with-low-pay-to-defy-taliban/）
Image: Rukhshana Media.（https://rukhshana.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-1-5.webp）
By Raha Azad
Rahima’s teaching salary is so meagre that sometimes she cannot even afford the fare to work, but her job in an Afghan girls’ school means far more to her than her pay packet.
“Because the Taliban’s ambition is to confine us women to our homes, I’d still come and teach even if I got no salary at all,” she told Rukhshana Media.
Giving up work simply because the pay is poor “would mean we’d have surrendered to the situation the Taliban have created”, Rahima added.
Since seizing power in 2021, the Taliban have banned women from most jobs and sought to erase them from public life. Teaching is one of the few professions still open to them.
Related Posts
Skipping school to survive – the Afghan province where more and more children work（https://rukhshana.com/en/skipping-school-to-survive-the-afghan-province-where-more-and-more-children-work/）
‘Please observe the hijab’: The Taliban wall signs sowing fear in Kabul（https://rukhshana.com/en/please-observe-the-hijab-the-taliban-wall-signs-sowing-fear-in-kabul/）
Many women say the slew of restrictions on their daily lives have left them feeling like prisoners in their own homes. Some are struggling with depression and anxiety.
One women’s rights activist, who asked not to be identified, said that many teachers continue working for next to nothing because “simply being able to leave the house and work matters in itself”.
But she said the lack of employment opportunities for women had created conditions ripe for exploitation.
“Some schools take advantage of the situation and offer low salaries,” she said, adding she had heard of teachers working for as little as 2,000 afghanis (£23.29) a month.
Rukhshana Media spoke to a dozen teachers and principals in schools in the city of Faizabad, provincial capital of the northern province of Badakhshan.
One head teacher said women working in private schools typically earn about 3,000 to 5,000 afghanis ( £34.94 to £58.23) a month while male teachers earn 7,000 afghanis (£81.52).
Before 2021, salaries were broadly the same for men and women. But the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s employment has fuelled competition for jobs in girls’ schools and driven down wages.
The headteacher said she now gets applicants willing to work for no pay at all.
Education is strictly segregated in Afghanistan and women cannot work in boys’ schools.
Salaries in government-run schools are generally between 7,000 (£81.52) and 13,000 afghanis (£151.39) per month for both men and women, but there are far fewer jobs for female teachers due to the Taliban’s closure of girls’ high schools.