Taliban ban women from universities amid condemnation
The Taliban have banned women from universities in Afghanistan, sparking international condemnation and despair among young people in the country.
The higher education minister announced the regression on Tuesday, saying it would take immediate effect.
The ban further restricts women’s education – girls have already been excluded from secondary schools since the Taliban returned last year.
Some women staged protests in the capital Kabul on Wednesday.
The small demonstrations were quickly shut down by Taliban officials.
The UN’s Special Rapporteur to Afghanistan said it was “a new low further violating the right to equal education and deepens the erasure of women from Afghan society.”
The US said such a move would “come with consequences for the Taliban”.
“The Taliban cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all in Afghanistan,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement.
“No country can thrive when half of its population is held back.”
Female students have said about their anguish. “They destroyed the only bridge that could connect me with my future,” one Kabul University student said.
Another student said she was a woman who had “lost everything”.
She had been studying Sharia Islamic law and argued the Taliban’s order contradicted “the rights that Islam and Allah have given us”.
“They have to go to other Islamic countries and see that their actions are not Islamic,” she said.
Agencies