- The Taliban authorities on Tuesday ordered a nationwide ban on university education for girls, as the hardline Islamists continue to crush Afghan women’s right to education and freedom.
- Despite promising a softer rule when they seized power last year, the Taliban have ratcheted up restrictions on all aspects of women’s lives, ignoring international outrage.
- “You all are informed to immediately implement the mentioned order of suspending education of females until further notice,” said a letter issued to all government and private universities, signed by the Minister for Higher Education, Neda Mohammad Nadeem. The spokesman for the Ministry, ZiaullahHashimi, who tweeted the letter, confirmed the order in a text message to AFP.
- The ban on higher education comes less than three months after thousands of girls and women wrote university entrance exams across the country.
- After the takeover by the Taliban, universities were forced to implement new rules including gender segregated classrooms and entrances, while women were only permitted to be taught by women professors or older men.
SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB