KABUL: The Taliban have banned women from university education in Afghanistan until further notice, meaning girls and women can now only attend primary schools reported dpa.
Girls have been banned from secondary schools since the Taliban took over in August 2021.
In a statement published on Tuesday, all public and private universities and colleges were ordered to enforce the ban on women’s education until further notice.
The statement signed by acting minister Sheikh Neda Mohammad Nadeem was shared by the Ministry of Higher Education and was available to dpa.
There was no explanation for the statement.
Since taking power, the militant Islamists have massively restricted civil liberties, despite international criticism. Girls and women are largely excluded from public life and teenage girls have been deprived from attending school beyond grade six since the takeover.
Women have even been banned from visiting public parks and gyms for several months.
Meanwhile, the UN denounced the move on Tuesday reported Anadolu.
‘’It’s clearly another broken promise from the Taliban,‘’ UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told journalists. ‘’It’s another very troubling move.’’
The Taliban have failed to live up to their pledges to the international community.
“It’s difficult to imagine how a country can develop, can deal with all of the challenges that it has without the active participation of women and the education of women,“ said Dujarric.
Thousands of women have since lost their jobs or were forced to resign from government institutions and the private sector.
The US has also sharply rebuked the Taliban for expanding restrictions on women’s education, most recently banning women from university study indefinitely reported Anadolu.
“The United States condemns in the strongest terms the Taliban’s indefensible decision to ban women from universities, to keep secondary schools closed to girls and, to continue to impose other restrictions on the ability of women and girls in Afghanistan to exercise their human rights and their fundamental freedoms,“ State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.
“The Taliban made promises to the people of Afghanistan and to the international community that schools would reopen. They claimed that this was a matter of procedures and arrangements,“ said Price.
“Now, we hear the opposite. An order from the so-called Higher Education Ministry yesterday states that women cannot attend universities either. With the implementation of this decree, half of the Afghan population will soon be unable to access education beyond primary school,“ he added.
The Taliban’s prohibitions on female participation in public life in Afghanistan have already cost the country US$1 billion each year and “now the Taliban have imposed these losses on the Afghan people for the indefinite future,“ added Price. - Bernama
