The Taliban’s Higher Education Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday (December 20th) reflecting the decision of its cabinet, and said that access to all public and private universities for female students will remain suspended till further notice.
The Taliban’s move has drawn widespread reactions in the national and international arenas. The prominent Turkish novelist and storyteller, Elif Shafak, called this extreme policy horrible. The US envoys for Afghanistan have also called for the world to unite and declare a united stand toward this move.
Hasht-e Subh recently published a report about the Taliban’s scheme for Afghanistan’s education curriculum, which revealed that the Taliban is trying to manipulate the curricula based on their interpretations, consequently propagating violence and bigotry.
The Taliban banned girls above the sixth grade from school since regaining power in Afghanistan. The Taliban’s new regressive order, however, reflects the Taliban leadership’s decision concerning girls’ education. According to this statement, female students do not have the right to go to universities any more.
“According to the resolution 1443 in the Islamic calendar, the [Taliban] cabinet is informing you all that based on the issued order, female education is suspended until further notice. Implement immediately and inform this ministry about your actions,” reads the official statement signed by Taliban’s Higher Education Minister, Neda Mohammad Nadeem, addressed to all universities.
Female protestors in Afghanistan have called the Taliban’s new order “unprecedented ignorance” and “a symbol of compound ignorance and endless evil.” By posting contents on social media, they have said the Taliban have issued a complete charter of ignorance and darkness, adding that they want to rule Afghanistan in a medieval style.
At the same time, the “Movement of Mighty Women of Afghanistan” has said in an official statement: “The Taliban will not stop oppressing women until the country sinks completely into darkness and ignorance,” the statement read. “All girls, women and men who are aware and believe in gender equality, are asked to stand up to confront these petrifying and anti-human rights decisions and don’t let the Taliban destroy everything in the country and turn Afghanistan into a graveyard of our wishes.”
In this regard, Afghan political figures and groups have also reacted.
Sibghatullah Ahmadi, the spokesman of the National Resistance Front (NRF), called the Taliban “shameful pages of history for future generations” on Twitter. Mr. Ahmadi said that the Taliban lobbies at home and abroad who propagate in favor of this group “should die of shame.”
Rahmatullah Nabil, the former director of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) from 2010 to 2015, said on Twitter: “Education/knowledge promotes intellectual growth and the spirit of freedom in society. The Taliban have to keep the society in the darkness for their own survival, as they consider their survival and growth dependent on the ignorance of the young generation.
Dr. Mohammad Amin Ahmadi, a member of the former government’s peace reconciliation council, called the Taliban’s policy “full-fledged apartheid” against women in a statement on twitter. “Full-scale apartheid against women is worse than racial apartheid,” said Mr. Ahmadi. “According to relevant conventions, this act is an example of a crime against humanity and is an international crime. Therefore, a global campaign to identify it is a very crucial need.”
To protest the order of the Taliban, a professor at Kabul University, named Obaidullah Wardak, announced his resignation on Wednesday by posting a statement on his Facebook page.
Wardak said the Taliban regime has issued an order to ban the university education for girls against the instructions of the Prophet of Islam and the wishes of the Afghan people. Therefore, he no longer wants to teach at Kabul University under this regime.
He said that his resignation might not be of any value to the Taliban, but he stopped teaching at Kabul University because of his conscience.
Taliban’s New Order Draws Worldwide Reactions
Elif Shafak, a famous Turkish novelist and storyteller, called the new order of the Taliban horrible in a statement on Instagram.
“Today the Taliban banned Afghan women from university education. Already most Afghan teenage girls had been banned from secondary education. This is horrible! It is pure bigotry and misogyny. It is an incredibly sad and heartbreaking moment for women’s rights. Even more girls will be married off at an early age and millions of women will be silenced,” the statement read.
The US has also condemned the new order issued by the Taliban on Tuesday. US State Secretary, Antony Blinken, called the Taliban’s order a setback to their objective of being accepted by the international community.
“Deeply dismayed by the announcement from the Taliban denying women the right to university education. Afghan women deserve better. Afghanistan deserves better. The Taliban have just definitively set back their objective of being accepted by the international community,” Blinken tweeted.
The US Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Rina Amiri, also called for a united world stance against this regressive order in a statement on Twitter. According to Amiri, in no Muslim-majority country, in no place in the world, girls have been denied access to education.
“The world must reject, as Afghans have, that this is about culture or religion. In Afghan history, only the Taliban have enacted policies forbidding girls’ education. In no Muslim-majority country, in no place in the world, are girls denied an education,” Amiri tweeted.
The US Special Representative for Afghanistan, Thomas West, said on Twitter on Wednesday (December 21) that the world should unite to oppose this Taliban policy.
“This is an important moment for the world: We must unite and oppose these policies in the strongest terms. We must stand with Afghan women,” West tweeted.
One day after the regressive order of the Taliban’s Higher Education Ministry, Taliban forces in Kabul, Takhar and Ghazni provinces, have raided and stormed all the universities, schools, English language training centers and preparation centers for the university entrance examination, preventing all girls from attending their classes.