Afghanistan’s Taliban Ban on Ladies From Universities has sparked international outrage and left many Afghans feeling hopeless.
On Tuesday, the higher education minister made the decision official and stated that it will go into effect right away. Since girls have already been kept out of secondary schools since the Taliban returned last year, the prohibition significantly restricts women’s access to education.
Taliban Ban Ladies From Universities Following A Protest In Kabul
On Wednesday, some women protested in Kabul, the country’s capital. Afghanistan Women’s Unity and Solidarity protesters said, “Today we come out on the streets of Kabul to express our voices against the closing of the girls’ universities. Taliban officials promptly put an end to the tiny protests.
The decree, which returns Afghanistan to the time under the Taliban’s initial rule when girls could not enroll in formal education, has drawn condemnation from the UN and a number of other nations.
It was “a new low further breaching the right to equal education and deepening the erasing of women from Afghan society,” according to the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan. Such action would “have implications for the Taliban,” according to the US.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the Taliban “cannot expect to be a genuine member of the international community unless they respect the rights of everybody in Afghanistan.” “No nation can prosper if half of its people are held back.”
Female pupils have expressed their suffering to the BBC. One student at Kabul University remarked, “They demolished the one bridge that could have connected me with my future.”
“How do I respond? They killed my hope that I could learn and alter the course of my life or bring light to it.” Another pupil claimed to have “lost everything,” telling the BBC that she was a woman.
She claimed that the Taliban’s decree violated “the rights that Islam and Allah have given us” because she had been studying Sharia Islamic law. She told the BBC, “They have to travel to other Islamic nations and understand that their behavior is not Islamic.
The Taliban have been under pressure from Western nations to boost female education all year if they want to be legitimately recognized as the government of Afghanistan.
Although he was “disappointed” by the Taliban’s decision, Pakistan’s neighboring foreign minister said he still supported engagement.
Despite numerous losses in the areas of women’s education and other issues, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said, “I still think the easiest road to our goal is through Kabul and through the interim administration.”
The last thing they could do
After taking over last year in the wake of the US pulling out of the nation, the Taliban had pledged a softer administration. However, the nation’s women’s rights and liberties have continued to be reduced by radical Islamists.
Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban leader, and his inner circle have been opposed to modern education, especially for girls and women. More moderate officials have voiced resistance to this attitude, and observers claim that this matter has been a source of interfamilial conflict throughout the year.
However, the education ministry announced on Tuesday that after a review of the university’s curriculum and environment, girls’ enrollment would be prohibited “until a proper environment” was established. It continued, saying “citizens shouldn’t be concerned” and that it would soon create such a setting.
However, the Taliban in March had pledged to reopen a few high schools for girls, but on the day of their return, they abandoned the plan.
The crackdown also comes in the wake of a string of recent changes to laws affecting women. In the capital’s parks, gyms, and public baths, women were prohibited in November. According to a university instructor and Afghan activist in the US, the Taliban’s suspension of women’s access to higher education brought an end to their isolation.
“The Taliban’s only remaining option was to do this. Afghanistan is a cage for women, not a country for them “According to Humaira Qaderi, the BBC.
The Taliban had just three months ago allowed thousands of girls and women to sit university entrance exams in most provinces across the country. In the majority of the country’s provinces, the Taliban had just three months prior permitted thousands of girls and women to take university entrance examinations.
However, there were limitations on the disciplines they may apply for, with journalism being heavily restricted and fields like engineering, economics, veterinary science, and agriculture being barred. Since the Taliban took control of the country in 2021, universities have already been operating under discriminatory policies toward women.
There were separate entrances for men and women, and older men or women could only teach female students. Women continued to receive education, nevertheless. The rate of female enrollment in higher education surged 20 times between 2001 and 2018, according to a report released by Unesco on Tuesday, the last year before the Taliban took power.
Because there were “too many problems,” several women have told the BBC that they gave up once the Taliban reclaimed power.
Issue splits Taliban
A BBC South Asia journalist provides analysis. For more than a month, rumors have circulated that the Taliban administration will forbid women from attending universities.
A few weeks earlier, a female student made the prediction. She had predicted that when we woke up one day, girls would no longer be permitted at universities.
Thus, even if many Afghans may have assumed that this choice will be made eventually, it nevertheless comes as a surprise. Women were denied access to parks, gyms, and swimming pools last month. The Taliban administration failed to fulfill its promise to start secondary schools for girls in March of this year. It has been clear from interactions with Taliban commanders over the past year that there is division among the Taliban on the subject of girls’ education.
Several Taliban members have stated repeatedly that they are hopeful and trying to try and ensure that girls receive an education off the record.
In 31 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, girls are now permitted to take secondary school graduation examinations, despite the fact that they have been prohibited from attending school for more than a year. That offered a spark of optimism, which has now been put out.
