Taliban Ban Women From College In Afghanistan

The authorities established by the Taliban in Afghanistan they have prohibited “until further notice” the admission of women in public and private universities across the country, the Afghan news agency Jaama Press has reported. The Ministry of Higher Education, led by Minister Neda Mohamed Nadim, has issued a brief statement, also consulted by the Tolo television channel, in which it urges the suspension of the admission of women to higher educational institutions.

The Minister for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, Mohamad Khalid Hanafi, has specified that the reopening of educational centers, closed since the Taliban came to power, “depends to a large extent on the creation of a decent cultural and religious environment”.

Crying, powerless before the new order of the Taliban: this is how Afghan students were in Kabul after this decision. In little more than a year, the women of Afghanistan have once again been locked up by the Taliban and have lost all the rights they had won.

From now on, women in Afghanistan can only study until the age of 12, because a little over a year ago he already prohibited them from going to the institute. It is the umpteenth promise broken by the Taliban, which is not even affected by the protests that the men have made in the Faculty of Medicine, refusing to be examined by this new norm.

A norm that is yet another proof of how women in the country have lost in a matter of a year and a half the rights they had achieved in two decades.

Amnesty International calls for this situation to be reversed

The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated shortly after on its official Twitter profile that this “shameful” decision is a violation of the “right to education” of women and girls in Afghanistan. “The Taliban make it clear every day that they do not respect the fundamental rights of Afghans, especially women,” he added.

Likewise, the NGO Amnesty International (AI) has asked the Afghan authorities to “immediately” reverse this mandate and has urged Kabul to “stop promoting its discriminatory agenda against women and girls”. “The policies that the Taliban currently follow are discriminatory, unfair and violate International Law,” he said on his official Twitter profile of the Asia region, adding that denying women education will have “a far-reaching impact on the prospects for social reconstruction and economic growth” of the country.

For his part, the State Department spokesman, Ned Price, has condemned this action and has assured that, with its implementation, “half of the Afghan population will soon be unable to access education beyond primary school,” according to CNN has reported. In this sense, Price has affirmed in a press conference that this “indefensible” decision will have “significant consequences for the Taliban” and it will alienate them “even more from the international community” while “denying them the legitimacy they seek.”

The Taliban authorities have faced criticism for the closure of educational centers and the exclusion of female students from them, in the midst of a battery of discriminatory measures against women that keep them from their jobs and govern aspects of their daily lives. . Since August, The authorities have prevented female students in the upper-sixth year from returning to class, something that they have authorized the students. In February, the process of reopening universities ended after the imposition of segregation by sex in the classrooms.

“A more pluralistic politics”

The announcement of the veto for women in higher education coincided with a session in the Security Council in which the special representative of the United Nations General Secretariat for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, appeared in New York to detail the political situation and security that the country lives. “The exiled politicians are, of course, critical, but they are fragmented and their statements have diminishing resonance with the population inside Afghanistan. The Taliban reject the need for any kind of dialogue between Afghans and affirm that their government is sufficiently representative“, he explained in the face of the lack of political representation.

In this way, it has ruled that the “only way forward” is through “a more pluralistic politics” where all Afghans, especially women, are represented. “The suppression of opposing voices is all the more unfortunate given the increasing harshness of the Taliban’s social policies,” she added. Otunbayeva has pointed out that since November 9, women have been prohibited from visiting public parks, bars and gyms, in such a way that “their social space is being restricted as much as their political space.”

“The prevention of secondary education will mean that in two years there will be no girls entering university. This decision is extremely unpopular among Afghans and even among the Taliban leadership. It has been criticized by the entire Islamic world“, he specified. In addition, he has put on the table the recent decision of the leader of the Taliban movement, Hibatulá Ajunzadá, who ordered the judges to apply corporal and capital punishment against women. He has also given the example of the first public execution carried out carried out on December 7, which was attended by various Taliban officials.

“UNAMA has documented that these punishments have taken place since the Taliban takeover. However, since the announcement of the Taliban leader’s instruction, have become more and more public“, he expressed during the session. On the other hand, Otunbayeva stressed that the United Nations is closely monitoring the escalation of tensions between Kabul and Islamabad. Likewise, there is great concern about the activity of the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) terrorist group. and by the recent attacks against the embassies of Russia and Pakistan.