Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have ordered an indefinite ban on university education for the country’s women, the ministry of higher education said in a letter issued to all government and private universities.
“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, Ziaullah Hashimi confirmed the order. This news came as a huge blow for the young girls who had appeared in university entrance exams a couple of months ago. Many of them were aspiring to choose engineering and medical as future careers.
Journalism student Madina said she was struggling to comprehend the weight of Tuesday’s order.
“I have nothing to say. Not only me but all my friends have no words to express our feelings,” the 18-year-old said. “Everyone is thinking about the unknown future ahead of them. They buried our dreams.”
The pain caused to these girls cannot be justified with whatever excuse they bring-up for this cruel decision. In a patriarchal society, where these girls may already have faced hardships to convince their families for studies, this decision of hard-line- Islamist group is nothing less than a shame. Many of these enthusiastic girls, might get married by their families. They may never get a chance again.
Several Taliban officials say the secondary education ban is only temporary, but have given a litany of excuses for the closure, from a lack of funds to time needed to remodel the syllabus along Islamic lines.
Their statement seems to be an excuse, they apparently have come with a new mindset, but their actions and decisions give the same old impression. They are the same old Taliban group who denied the girls education in 1990s. Holding smartphones, social media accounts and new cars does not depict a considerate mindset. Do they even know what Islam says about education?
In the Holy Quran, Allah orders both men and women to increase their knowledge and condemns those who are not learned. The very first revelation to Prophet Mohammed (ﷺ) starts with the word read and says: “Read. Read in the name of thy Lord who created; [He] created the human being from blood clot.”
What a shame this group aims to bring to the name of “Islam.” Isn’t this mindset responsible for promoting an “extremist” impression of Islam?
Women have been pushed out of many government jobs or are being paid a slashed salary to stay at home. They are also barred from travelling without a male relative, and must cover up outside the home, ideally with a burqa.
In November they were prohibited from going to parks, funfairs, gyms, and public baths. What an irony! In the present world, where there is no margin of discrimination between men and women, they have come up with a mentality of treating women worse than slaves. Their version of Islam is no way closer to what Islam teaches. Banning women from all the walks of life and barring them from entertainment and recreation is total violation of basic human rights and utterly condemnable.
Taliban are making it a crime to be a woman. Their decisions are inhuman and apparently, they may feel in control, but their restrictions are instilling women with anger and hopelessness. In the long run, it would aggravate the country’s economic crises as women are dropped out of the workforce. Afghanistan is edging to collapse soon, watch out!!
About the Author: The author is a co-founder of the PNI digital network and a student at Stockholm University, Sweden. Her field of study includes human rights, research and politics. She has been vocal about sociopolitical issues and participates actively in humanitarian causes.
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