Sheikh Maulvi Nada Mohammad Nadeem, the Taliban’s acting minister of higher education, issued a formal letter ordering all public and private universities to halt the education of female students until further notice.
“You all are informed to immediately implement the mentioned order of suspending the education of females until further notice,” said the letter signed by Nada Mohammad.
The Taliban’s announcement came with a huge wave of national and international condemnation.
“The Taliban cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all Afghans, especially the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls,” US Deputy UN Ambassador Robert Wood said at the UN security council meeting.
Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the Taliban’s latest restrictions and said that the Taliban orders were “unjustifiable human rights violations and must be revoked”
Human rights watch also condemned the Taliban’s action and called it shameful.
British prime minister Rishi Sunak also twitted and said” As a father to daughters, I cannot imagine a world in which they’re denied an education. The women of Afghanistan have so much to offer. Denying them access to university is a grave step backward. The world is watching. We will judge the Taliban by their actions.”
Taliban’s recent decision has invoked a huge wave of anger and despair among Afghans. On Wednesday in Kabul city, some women’s rights activists and university students staged protests against this decision. But their protest was soon suppressed by the Taliban.
A girl who is a student at Kabul university; we will not mention her name for safety reasons said” Taliban is a barbaric group who are afraid of educated women. They know that if society, especially women become educated, they would stop following them, therefore, they are banning all kinds of education for women.”
Another university student said,” Taliban have destroyed our dreams and stole our future from us.”
“ Time and again, the Taliban proved that they are not capable of governing,” said another human rights activist.
