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Tuesday, December 20, 2022
The Taliban passed an edict Tuesday banning women from post-secondary education across Afghanistan until further notice in their latest crackdown on women’s rights.
A letter from Ziaullah Hashmi, spokesman for the Ministry of Higher Education, instructs public and private universities to implement the ban swiftly and with immediate effect. The order comes just weeks after female pupils in most provinces sat their university entrance exams after a year without secondary school.
Previously, authorities drew widespread condemnation for redoubling efforts to impose their strict interpretation of Islamic law (shari’a) despite initial promises of a more moderate regime. Taliban forces resumed control of Afghanistan in August 2021 after a co-ordinated Nato withdrawal of forces after twenty years of war.
Women have already been excluded from most secondary schools as they were under Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in the 1990s, and were restricted in terms of what subjects they could study, and what professors they could have in university. They must also be covered from head-to-toe and are prohibited from some public areas, including fairgrounds, gyms, parks and swimming pools.
United States deputy ambassador to the United Nations Robert A. Wood called the move “absolutely indefensible”. During a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York City, he said: “The Taliban cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all Afghans, especially the human rights and fundamental freedom of women and girls”.
The Taliban have attempted to shore international recognition and foreign aid amidst a worsening humanitarian crisis. On Friday, the UN again deferred a decision that would give the Taliban a seat in the international body, meaning ‘Afghanistan’ would continue to be represented by the deposed government of President Ashraf Ghani.
The UN’s special envoy for Afghanistan Roza Otunbayeva said before today’s announcement closing secondary schools in Afghanistan was “extremely unpopular among Afghans and even within the Taliban leadership.” BBC South Asia correspondent Yogita Limaye reported some dissent among authorities over girls’ education, with some officials claiming off the record their hope for female education.
Several Afghan women have reported frustration and grief over the decision. A third-year journalism and communications student at Nangarhar University told the Associated Press: “I can’t fulfil my dreams, my hopes. Everything is disappearing before my eyes and I can’t do anything about it.
“Is being a girl a crime? If that’s the case, I wish I wasn’t a girl”, she said. “My father had dreams for me, that his daughter would become a talented journalist in the future. […] God willing, I will continue my studies in any way. I’m starting online studies. And, if it doesn’t work, I will have to leave the country and go to another country”.
Elsewhere, the US State Department reported the release of two Americans held in Afghanistan as part of an apparent ‘goodwill gesture’ by the Taliban.