The United Nations Children's fund, UNICEF, has warned that Afghanistan's school system has almost collapsed after twenty years of war.

In a statement, UNICEF said that almost nine out of ten girls and two in three boys were not enrolled at school, while the adult literacy rate was forty-seven percent for men and only fifteen percent for women.

UNICEF said the gender gap had been exacerbated by the Taliban authorities, who've banned girls from formal education and said women teachers can't work.

The Taliban, which now controls more than ninety percent of Afghan territory, have enforced a strict interpretation of Muslim teaching since taking power in Kabul more than two years ago.