Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Development Goals: Empowering Women in Afghanistan Through Online Education

This study examines the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in empowering female students and advancing the sustainable development of women in Afghanistan. The objectives were to assess AI adoption patterns, evaluate AI's impact on multiple empowerment dimensions, and identify barriers to equitable access. Using a convergent mixed-methods design, structured questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were administered to 312 female students (response rate 92.3%) drawn from six faculties at Vision Online University—Engineering and Information Technology, Social Sciences, Business and Economics, Education, Health Sciences, and Law and Political Science. Results show that 74.4% of respondents regularly used AI tools, with statistically significant improvements across all six empowerment dimensions following AI integration (p < 0.001), most notably in information access (+49.9 points) and digital literacy (+41.6 points). However, the analysis also revealed persistent structural barriers, including poor internet connectivity (74%), electricity shortages (69%), device inaccessibility (63%), and limited availability of AI tools in local languages (58%). These findings indicate that AI holds substantial transformative potential for women's empowerment in Afghanistan, but realizing this potential requires targeted infrastructure investment, localization of AI tools in Dari and Pashto, and gender-responsive digital education policies