KABUL — Afghan universities were declared off limits
to women because female students were not following instructions including a
proper dress code, the Taliban's minister for higher education said Thursday.
اضافة اعلان
The ban announced earlier this week is the latest
restriction on women's rights in Afghanistan ordered by the Taliban since their
return to power in August last year.
It has drawn global outrage, including from Muslim nations
who deemed it against Islam, and from the Group of Seven industrialized
democracies who said the prohibition may amount to "a crime against
humanity".
But Neda Mohammad Nadeem, the minister for higher education
in the Taliban government, insisted Thursday that women students had ignored
Islamic instructions — including on what to wear or being accompanied by a male
relative when travelling.
"Unfortunately after the passing of 14 months, the
instructions of the Ministry of Higher Education of the Islamic Emirate
regarding the education of women were not implemented," Nadeem said in an
interview on state television.
"They were dressing like they were going to a wedding.
Those girls who were coming to universities from home were also not following
instructions on hijab."
Nadeem also said some science subjects were not suitable for
women. "Engineering, agriculture, and some other courses do not match the
dignity and honor of female students and also
Afghan culture," he said.
The authorities had also decided to shut those madrassas
that were teaching only women students but were housed inside mosques, Nadeem
said.
The ban on university education came less than three months
after thousands of women students were allowed to sit university entrance
exams, many aspiring for teaching and medicine as future careers.
Secondary schools for girls have been closed across most of
the country for over a year — also temporarily, according to the Taliban,
although they have offered a litany of excuses for why they have not
re-opened.
Women have slowly been squeezed out of public life since the
Taliban's return, pushed out of many government jobs or paid a fraction of
their former salary to stay at home.
"Taliban policies designed to erase women from public life will have consequences for how our countries engage with the Taliban."
They are also barred from traveling without a male relative
and must cover up in public, and are prohibited from going to parks, fairs,
gyms, and public baths.
The Taliban's treatment of women including its latest move
to restrict university access for them drew fierce reaction from the G7, whose
ministers demanded the ban be reversed.
"Gender persecution may amount to a crime against
humanity under the Rome Statute, to which Afghanistan is a state party,"
the ministers said in a statement, referring to the International Criminal
Court in The Hague.
"Taliban policies designed to erase women from public
life will have consequences for how our countries engage with the
Taliban."
The international community has made the right to education
for all women a sticking point in negotiations over aid and recognition of the
Taliban regime.
Saudi Arabia too expressed "astonishment and
regret" at the ban, urging the Taliban to reverse it.
But Nadeem hit back at the international community, saying
it should "not interfere in Afghanistan's internal affairs".
Rare protestsEarlier Thursday a group of Afghan women staged a street
protest in Kabul against the ban.
"They expelled women from universities. Oh, the
respected people, support, support. Rights for everyone or no one!"
chanted the protesters as they rallied in a Kabul neighborhood, footage
obtained by AFP showed.
Women-led protests have become increasingly rare in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over the country in August 2021, particularly after the detention of core activists at the start of this year.
A protester at the rally told AFP "some of the
girls" had been arrested by women police officers. Two were later released
and two remained in custody, she added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Women-led protests have become increasingly rare in
Afghanistan since the Taliban took over the country in August 2021,
particularly after the detention of core activists at the start of this year.
Participants risk arrest, violence and stigma from their
families for taking part.
Despite promising a softer rule when they seized power, the Taliban
have ratcheted up restrictions on all aspects of women's lives.
After their takeover, universities were forced to implement
new rules including gender-segregated classrooms and entrances, while women
were only permitted to be taught by professors of the same sex, or old men.
The Taliban adhere to an austere version of Islam, with the
movement's supreme leader
Hibatullah Akhundzada and his inner circle of clerics
against modern education, especially for girls and women, some Taliban
officials say.
In the 20 years between the Taliban's two reigns, girls were
allowed to go to school and women were able to seek employment in all sectors,
though the country remained socially conservative.
The authorities have also returned to public
floggings of men and women in recent weeks, as they implement an extreme
interpretation of Islamic sharia law.
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