The United Nations on Sunday called on the Taliban to reopen high schools for girls across Afghanistan, condemning the ban, which began exactly a year ago, as “tragic and shameful”.

Weeks after the hardline Islamists seized power in August last year, they reopened high schools for boys on September 18 but banned secondary school students from attending classes.

Months later, on March 23, the Ministry of Education opened secondary schools for girls, but within hours the Taliban leadership ordered them closed again.

Since then, more than a million teenage girls across the country have been deprived of an education, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said.

“This is a tragic, shameful and totally avoidable anniversary,” said Markus Potzel, acting head of UNAMA, in a statement.

“It is deeply damaging to a generation of girls and to the future of Afghanistan itself,” he said, adding the ban has no parallel anywhere in the world.

UN chief Antonio Guterres called on the Taliban to lift the ban.

“A year of lost knowledge and opportunity they will never get back,” Guterres said on Twitter.

“Girls belong in school. The Taliban have to let them back in.”

Several Taliban officials say the ban is temporary, but they have also offered a litany of excuses for the closures – from a lack of money to the time it will take to reshape the curriculum along Islamic lines.

Earlier this month, Education Minister Noorullah Munir was quoted by local media as saying it was a cultural issue as many rural residents did not want their teenage daughters to go to school.

Year 12 student Kawsar, who gave a fictitious name to protect her identity, said she was frustrated that her high school had been closed for a year.

“It’s been a dark year, a year of stress and disappointment,” she said.

“It is our primary right to have an education. Society needs doctors and teachers, only boys cannot meet all the needs of society.”

Many conservative Afghan clerics within the Taliban are skeptical about modern education.

Last month, authorities announced they would increase compulsory religious education at state universities, although no subjects would be eliminated from the current curriculum.

Responding to the education minister’s comments in local media, Kainat, a school teacher, said parents and families across Afghanistan are interested in teaching their daughters.

“They want their girls to achieve what they strive for, every family wants their children, including girls, to serve the nation,” said Kainat, who also gave a fictional name.

“It’s wrong to say that people in Afghanistan don’t want an education for their girls.”

After seizing power on August 15 last year during the chaotic withdrawal of foreign forces, the Taliban promised a softer version of their tough Islamist regime in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.

But within days they began imposing severe restrictions on girls and women to conform to their strict vision of Islam – effectively squeezing them out of public life.

Aside from closing high schools for girls, the Taliban have barred women from many government jobs and also ordered them to cover themselves in public, preferably with an all-encompassing burqa.

Some secondary schools for girls in provinces away from the central power bases of Kabul and Kandahar remained open due to pressure from families and tribal leaders.