US warns Taliban of ‘costs’ over university ban for Afghan women

US secretary of state says Taliban is sentencing ladies and women in Afghanistan to a ‘darkish future with out alternative’.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned the Taliban that america will impose “prices” on the group if it doesn't reverse its latest ban on ladies attending college in Afghanistan.

Blinken mentioned on Thursday that the Taliban-led authorities in Kabul will be unable to enhance relations with the remainder of the world if it continued to disclaim Afghan ladies their basic rights.

“What they’ve achieved is to attempt to sentence Afghan ladies and women to a darkish future with out alternative,” Blinken mentioned throughout an end-of-year information convention in Washington, DC.

“And the underside line is that no nation goes to have the ability to succeed – a lot much less thrive – if it denies half its inhabitants the chance to contribute.

“And to be clear, we’re engaged with different nations on this proper now – there are going to be prices if this isn't reversed, if this has not modified,” mentioned Blinken, with out specifying what the measures may embrace.

Afghanistan’s aid-dependent financial system is already underneath heavy US and Western sanctions following the Taliban’s takeover of the nation final 12 months amid the withdrawal of US troops, which ended a 20-year occupation.

In response to widespread fears of a return to the cruel insurance policies that dominated the Taliban’s rule of Afghanistan within the Nineteen Nineties, the group initially promised a extra reasonable authorities when it took energy in August 2021.

However the transfer to droop college training for ladies, introduced earlier this week, sparked outrage internationally, together with from a number of Muslim-majority nations that known as on the Taliban to reverse the decree.

Turkish Overseas Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu mentioned on Thursday that the ban was “neither Islamic nor humane”.

“What hurt is there in ladies’s training? What hurt does it do to Afghanistan?” Cavusoglu mentioned. “Is there an Islamic clarification? Quite the opposite, our faith, Islam, isn't towards training; quite the opposite, it encourages training and science.”

Within the Afghan capital, about 50 primarily feminine protesters gathered exterior Kabul College, holding banners and chanting, “Training is our proper, universities ought to be opened.”

The day past, college students at Nangahar College in jap Afghanistan additionally demonstrated and male medical college students walked out of exams in protest at their feminine classmates being excluded.

The Taliban has defended the restrictions, saying that they purpose to protect the “nationwide curiosity” and girls’s “honour”.

Performing Increased Training Minister Nida Mohammad Nadim, in his first feedback on the matter, instructed Afghan state broadcaster RTA that a number of points had prompted the choice, together with feminine college students not sporting acceptable Islamic apparel and interactions between college students of various genders.

“They didn’t observe hijab, they had been coming with the garments that largely ladies put on to go to a marriage,” he mentioned.

Nadim additionally mentioned through the interview that discussions over feminine training had been ongoing.

In the meantime, the choice continues to attract widespread criticism, with the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations saying gender persecution might quantity to against the law towards humanity, in a press release on Thursday slamming the Taliban’s decree.

In Washington, Blinken additionally mentioned the ban would hurt any likelihood of the Taliban bettering its relationships with different nations.

“Any prospect that the Taliban seeks for improved relations with the world, with the worldwide group, which is one thing that they need and we all know that they want – that isn't going to occur in the event that they proceed on this course,” he mentioned.

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