Taliban says women banned from universities in Afghanistan

The US and Britain criticised the ban, which the Taliban says preserves “nationwide curiosity” and girls’s “honour”

Afghanistan’s Taliban-run larger training ministry has stated that feminine college students wouldn't be allowed entry to the nation’s universities till additional discover.

A letter, confirmed by a spokesperson for the upper training ministry on Tuesday, instructed Afghan private and non-private universities to droop entry to feminine college students instantly, in accordance with a Cupboard choice.

“You all are knowledgeable to instantly implement the talked about order of suspending the training of females till additional discover,” stated a letter issued to all authorities and personal universities, signed by the Minister for Greater Schooling, Neda Mohammad Nadeem.

The most recent Taliban restriction on feminine training is more likely to elevate issues within the worldwide neighborhood [File: EPA]

The spokesman for the ministry, Ziaullah Hashimi, who tweeted the letter, confirmed the order to a number of information companies together with AFP and the Related Press.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric described the transfer as “troubling”.

“It’s clearly one other damaged promise from the Taliban,” Dujarric informed reporters on Tuesday.

“We've seen since their takeover … a lessening of house for ladies, not solely in training, however entry to public areas,” he stated.

“It’s one other very troubling transfer and it’s tough to think about how a rustic can develop, can cope with the entire challenges that it has with out the lively participation of ladies and their training.”

The announcement got here because the United Nations Safety Council met in New York on Afghanistan. The USA and British UN envoys each condemned the transfer in the course of the council assembly.

“The Taliban can not anticipate to be a official member of the worldwide neighborhood till they respect the rights of all Afghans, particularly the human rights and basic freedom of ladies and women,” US Deputy UN Ambassador Robert Wooden stated.

‘Feeling this ache’

The Taliban has defended its choice, saying such restrictions have been achieved to protect “nationwide curiosity” and girls’s “honour”.

A number of Taliban officers stated the secondary training ban is simply momentary, however they've additionally wheeled out a litany of excuses for the closure – from an absence of funds to the time wanted to rework the syllabus alongside Islamic traces.

It has additionally restricted ladies from most fields of employment, ordered them to put on head-to-toe clothes in public, and banned them from parks and gymnasiums.

Affirmation of the college restrictions got here the identical night as a UN Safety Council session on Afghanistan, at which the UN secretary-general’s particular consultant for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, stated the closure of colleges had “undermined” the Taliban administration’s relationship with the worldwide neighborhood.

“So long as women stay excluded from faculty and the de facto authorities proceed to ignore different acknowledged issues of the worldwide neighborhood, we stay at one thing of an deadlock,” she stated.

In the meantime, Obaidullah Baheer, founding father of the Let Afghan Women Study marketing campaign, stated the transfer is like “a recurring nightmare stretching over generations”.

“The Taliban selected the day and the time wherein the UN safety council was discussing Afghanistan to announce one thing like that,” Baheer informed Al Jazeera.

“There may be stress inside the Taliban … even individuals who oppose this choice have been very passive,” he stated.

“We stored counting on the Taliban to reform internally – that hasn’t labored,” Baheer stated, including that the worldwide neighborhood’s reactions in direction of the Taliban has solely “appeased” and “emboldened them”.

The choice got here as many college college students are sitting for end-of-term exams. One mom of a college pupil, who requested to not be named for safety causes, stated her daughter known as her in tears when she heard of the letter, fearing she might not proceed her medical research in Kabul.

“The ache that not solely I … and [other] moms have in our hearts, couldn't be described. We're all feeling this ache. They're apprehensive for the way forward for their youngsters,” she stated.

The nation has been reeling from a humanitarian disaster with greater than half of the inhabitants dealing with starvation. amid Western-imposed sanctions, in addition to the freezing of humanitarian help and almost $10bn in Afghan central financial institution property.