Education in Times of War: How Decades of Conflict Impacted Afghanistan's Higher Education System

Written by Nele Feldmann. Published on June 4, 2018. 

This article was published in 2018, it reflects numbers and facts true at the time of publishing. 

For more than 35 years, Afghanistan has been in a state of protracted conflict. From the Soviet invasion in December 1979 to the civil war that followed the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 to the Taliban talking over control in 1996 and the U.S. led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, armed conflict characterizes Afghanistan’s modern history. The ongoing violence in Afghanistan has hurt Afghan society, caused extreme poverty, and led to millions of internally and externally displaced people.