The return of obscurantism. The Taliban authorities announced on Tuesday that Afghan universities were now prohibited for girls, already deprived of secondary education in Afghanistan since the accession to power of Islamic fundamentalists, for an indefinite period.
“You are all informed to implement the mentioned order to suspend women’s education until further notice,” said in a letter addressed to all government and private universities in the country, the Minister of Higher Education , Neda Mohammad Nadeem.
An ultra-rigorous interpretation of Islam
Ministry spokesman Ziaullah Hashimi, who tweeted the letter, also confirmed the order with AFP. No explanation has yet been provided to justify this decision. The higher education ban comes less than three months after thousands of girls and women took university entrance exams across the country. Many of them aspired to choose between careers in engineering or medicine, although deprived of access to secondary schools.
When they returned to power in August 2021, the Taliban had promised to be more flexible, but they largely returned to the ultra-rigorous interpretation of Islam which had marked their first spell in power (1996-2001).
The draconian measures have multiplied in particular against women who have been progressively excluded from public life and excluded from colleges and high schools. In an unexpected about-face, on March 23 the Taliban closed secondary schools just hours after their long-announced reopening. Taliban Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada himself intervened in the decision, according to a senior Taliban official.
Arrests of protesters
Various members of power said that there were not enough teachers or money but also that schools would reopen once an Islamic curriculum was developed. Female civil servants are also barred from most government jobs or paid a pittance to stay home.
Women are also prohibited from traveling without being accompanied by a male relative and must wear a burqa or hijab when leaving their homes.
In November, the Taliban also banned them from entering parks, gardens, sports halls and public baths. Demonstrations by women against these measures, which rarely gather more than forty people, have become risky. Many protesters have been arrested and journalists are increasingly prevented from covering these rallies.
Despite their exclusion from colleges and high schools, in Kabul, many young women had traveled in early December to take their final secondary school exam, necessary to qualify to enter university, journalists from the AFP. The number of participants and the details of the exam had not been communicated by the Ministry of Education, but after more than three hours of study, several dozen young women dressed in long black clothes had come out of a Kabul establishment.
“Unacceptable position”
The United States condemned in the “strongest terms” the ban on girls from going to university in Afghanistan, while welcoming the release of two of their nationals detained in this country.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price called it a “barbaric” decision after the Taliban announced that Afghan universities would now be banned for girls. “The Taliban should expect that this decision, which contradicts the commitments they themselves made publicly and in front of their people, will have concrete consequences for them,” he told the press.
“This unacceptable stance will have significant consequences for the Taliban and further alienate them from the international community and the legitimacy they desire,” the spokesman added.