Exiled Teachers; Taliban Begins Ideological Purge of Afghanistan’s Schools

 Since the Taliban’s return to power, the phenomenon of “exiled teachers” has spread across Afghanistan, systematically pushing experienced educators out of the national education system.

Dozens of teachers with years of classroom experience have been removed from their posts by Taliban-appointed officials in the Ministry of Education and exiled to remote village schools. Their “offenses” range from lacking loyalty to the Taliban to resisting the group’s ideological influence over school curricula. This forced relocation is seen as a tactic to pressure teachers into resignation.

Teachers in public schools in Kabul, Samangan, and Mazar-i-Sharif tol
d Independent Persian that Taliban officials in the education department are using exile to remote areas as a means to purge those who do not align with the group’s ideology. This policy has led to widespread professional displacement and has severely affected both teachers’ livelihoods and the quality of education in affected regions.

A teacher and student at a school in Kabul — UNICEFAfg/X

Rasul (pseudonym), a teacher with 14 years of experience in a school in Nahur district, Ghazni, was sent by a Taliban-appointed education director to a remote mountainous village school. Rasul explained that he had helped transform his former school into a model institution through collaboration with other teachers and support from Afghan migrants in Australia. But these efforts conflicted with Taliban directives, leading to his reassignment to a location six hours away from home by car.

Calling his transfer an “exile,” Rasul says most of his salary is now spent on travel expenses, leaving little to support his family. His new school lacks basic facilities such as a library, laboratory, and even toilets. “Sometimes I sleep at the mosque, sometimes in the school. I go home every few days. There’s nothing good here. The people are very poor. Some classrooms don’t even have carpets to sit on,” he said.

Rasul added that the local education director, Mawlawi Qudratullah Jalalzi, is illiterate and uses his authority to exile teachers he believes do not support the Taliban’s ideology.

Rasul is not alone. Dozens of other teachers have also been transferred from schools where they taught for years to remote areas under various pretexts. Many have resigned due to the harsh conditions, while others continue to work in hopes that the situation will improve.

Mahmood Khan (pseudonym), 55, has taught mathematics for nearly 35 years in Sholgara district, Balkh province. A year ago, following a disagreement with the school principal, he was exiled to a village accessible only by horseback or motorcycle. He said that the Taliban-appointed director of education, in coordination with the school principal, sent him there as punishment. Now, he spends at least four hours commuting daily, and much of his monthly salary is consumed by travel costs.

According to Khan, several other experienced teachers were also forced to resign under pressure. The Taliban has replaced them with individuals primarily educated in religious madrasas, lacking formal teaching qualifications.

In Samangan province, a source shared a list of 50 teachers in Dara-i-Suf Bala district who were transferred to remote villages under the orders of Mawlawi Abdul Latif Altaf, the local education director with only a sixth-grade education. These teachers, from various levels—elementary to high school—were moved far from their homes as punishment, with the expectation that they would resign due to hardship.

Most districts in Afghanistan lack public transportation. Teachers rely on motorcycles for commuting, which, given monthly salaries ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 Afghanis (about $70–$140), poses a significant financial burden.

In Sancharak district, Sar-e Pol province, another teacher—speaking anonymously—said he was exiled to a remote village three hours away by motorcycle after protesting extortion by the local Taliban-appointed education director. The teacher earned 7,000 Afghanis a month but said his commuting costs exceeded that amount. Despite repeated requests to teach at a nearby school, the director responded: “Either resign or keep working in that distant village.”

Before the Taliban’s return to power, there was no precedent for exiling teachers within the Afghan education system. But in the past three years, such actions have increased dramatically. Taliban-appointed education officials now use exile and pressure to push out experienced and professional teachers—clearing the way to Talibanize educational content and fill schools with graduates from religious seminaries as instructors.