Condemnation on Taliban’s ban on university education for Afghan women
I’m devastated that the Taliban announced a ban on university education for Afghan women. This week, women were not allowed to enter their classrooms. Female teachers were sent home from their jobs. The Taliban have already banned girls from secondary education for a year and half. There are reports that the Taliban will issue a total ban on education for girls and women this month.
Our greatest fears — what Afghan women activists have been vocalising at marches, on social media and in interviews — have already come true. The Taliban continue their extreme oppression of the Afghan women and girls, effectively erasing them from public life. They are not allowed to work, to learn, or to leave their homes.
This latest decree must be the final straw. World leaders have allowed the Taliban to deprive Afghans their rights without consequences.
We’re witnessing gender apartheid in Afghanistan. World leaders and politicians must express outrage at the ruthlessness of the Taliban’s violent discrimination against women and girls.
There is no religious or cultural justification for their actions. The restrictions on women are hypocritical and unIslamic.
Muslim clerics have denounced the new decree. Male students refused to sit in universities where their sisters were not allowed. University faculty have resigned from their jobs to protest the decision and stand in solidarity with Afghan women.
Afghan people, including men and boys, have risked their lives to protest the injustice against girls and women.
Leaders have much less to lose yet their condemnations and collective action could have the power to reverse these restrictions. Muslim country leaders must step up to publically challenge the use of Islam to prop up the Taliban’s regressive policies.
Without women and girls’ right to education, freedom and participation in society — there is no future for Afghanistan.
