Introduction

There is a significant lack of academic research on the history of modern education in Afghanistan. The history of modern education in Afghanistan, and factors that have influenced as well as constrained its development, have not received a deserving attention thus far. The existing body of literature on Afghanistan focuses primarily on historical, political or ethnographic developments within the country. During the three Anglo-Afghan wars (1839–42, 1878–80, and 1919), Afghanistan became a buffer zone between Russian and British advancements in Central and South Asia. The military coup of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) in April 1978, and the subsequent Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979, placed the country in the middle of cold war politics. The rise of resistance parties to political power from April 1992 to September 1996 and the rule of the Taliban regime from September 1996 to November 2001 have focused the world's attention on Afghanistan. These events have resulted in the production of copious amounts of literature on Afghanistan that largely focus on the country's ethnography, geology, and political issues facing the country, such as the impact of communist ideology and the Soviet Union's influence on Afghanistan, or the Taliban's style of governance and their restriction on women's movement in public spaces. Education has only received piecemeal and sporadic attention. Government documents on education provide descriptive statistical reports, mostly for propaganda purposes. They lack independent analytical and critical views. In addition, articles and reports on education over the past years have mainly been based on the reports and experiences of people working with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for refugees and the internally displaced population. The state's formal education system has been viewed through the lenses of donor institutions, NGOs and media reports. These documents, which also cover the Taliban's period and their treatment of women and women's education, share important information about the educational crisis in Afghanistan, but they do not provide independent academic investigation or a thorough analysis of the development of modern education. The fall of the Taliban from power in November 2001 has shifted research attention to the Taliban phenomenon and the role of madrasa education with regard to fundamentalism and militancy. As a result, modern education in Afghanistan has not received the attention it deserves.