Taliban ban university education for women, draws global outrage

The Taliban received global outrage for their actions against women's freedom.

In yet another move against the rights of women, the Taliban on Tuesday banned university education for women in Afghanistan. Despite promising a “softer rule”, the Taliban have been on a rampage to suppress women's right to freedom and education.

Afghanistan: Taliban have banned university education for women, after allowing them to write their high school graduation exams earlier this month (AFP photo, for representation only)

On Tuesday, a letter was issued to all government and private universities in the country - signed by Minister for Higher Education Neda Mohammad Nadeem - stating: “You all are informed to immediately implement the mentioned order of suspending education of females until further notice,” reported news agency AFP.

This comes just less than three months after thousands of women sat for the university entrance exams across the country. The universities are currently on winter break and are due to reopen in March.

The Taliban received global outrage for their actions against women's freedom.

The United States on Tuesday criticised the Taliban's ban on women in universities and warned of “countermeasures”. US state department spokesman Ned Price during a press briefing said, “The Taliban should expect that this decision, which is in contravention to the commitments they have made repeatedly and publicly to their own people, will carry concrete costs for them,” reported AFP.

“They have seriously -- possibly even fatally -- undermined one of their deepest ambitions... and that is an improvement and betterment of relations with the United States and the rest of the world,” he added.

Calling it an “unacceptable stance”, Price said, “It will have significant consequences for the Taliban and will further alienate the Taliban from the international community and deny them the legitimacy they desire.”

Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was "deeply alarmed" by the ban, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement, AFP reported.

“The secretary-general reiterates that the denial of education not only violates the equal rights of women and girls but will have a devastating impact on the country's future,” Dujarric said.

Notably, after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, several stringent measures - particularly regarding the rights of women and minorities - from ordering all the universities to implement new rules related to gender-segregated classrooms and entrances, to ordering all the female presenters on TV channels to cover their faces on air. In Afghanistan's western Herat province, men and women are not allowed to sit together in restaurants, even if they are husband and wife.

(With inputs from AFP)