Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has joined calls for the Taliban to reverse their decision to impose a ban on higher education in Afghanistan for women.
The development came after the Taliban in Afghanistan ordered women nationwide to stop attending public or private universities until further notice.
Decision deprives women of their rights to education: KSA
The Saudi Arab’s foreign ministry expressed great regret and was surprised at the decision and said it was surprising news for all Muslim countries. It said that this decision of the Taliban deprives women of their rights to education, development, and stability and will hinder Afghanistan’s prosperity.
Taliban security forces ban higher education for women from universities on Wednesday by blocking their access to universities. Afghan women were filmed weeping and consoling each other in Kabul outside one campus in Kabul. “You all are informed to immediately implement the mentioned order of suspending the education of females until further notice,” said Taliban’s minister for higher education, Neda Mohammad Nadeem.
This decision is included in the series of ever-stricter restrictions on Afghan women’s freedom, including a ban on travel without a male escort and a face covering. Public frustration with the regime seems to be growing, in the echoes of the current women-led protest movement in the neighboring country of Afghanistan, i.e., Iran, according to Afghanistan’s former national security adviser.
Qatar, which has played a main role in facilitating talks between the Taliban and the West, said everyone has the right to education and urged the rulers of Afghanistan to review their decision as per the teachings of Islam.
Although Pakistan rejected the decision of the Taliban, they still believed that engagement with the Taliban was the only best way to move forward.
“I still think the easiest path to our goal, despite having many setbacks when it comes to women’s education and other things, is through Kabul and through the interim government,” Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the Pakistani foreign minister, said.
The United States (US) immediately rejected the ban and warned that the Taliban government faces further isolation from the rest of the world. Girls were allowed to go to school between two reigns of the Taliban in the 20 years. Women could also seek employment in all sectors, though Afghanistan remained socially conservative. The return of the Taliban has dramatically changed things. A recent survey of women inside Afghanistan, cited by the United Nations (UN), found that only 4 percent of Afghan women reported always having enough food to eat while a quarter of women said their income had dropped to zero. Taliban sought to convince the world during negotiations in Doha that it had changed. However, on returning to power, the Taliban government reimposed many such restrictions.
The Taliban had initially promised that they would honor human rights obligations, including women’s rights. But just a month after returning to power, the regime-imposed gender-segregated university entrances and imposed hijabs as part of a compulsory dress code were introduced.
Then, on March 23 in 2022, when girls’ secondary schools were about to reopen, the Taliban declined the decision, stopping thousands of teenage girls from receiving an education. At least for now, primary school-aged girls are still allowed to receive schooling up to class six.
In May, the Taliban’s leader Hibatullah Akhundzada ordered women to cover themselves, including their faces, in public fully, remain at home, and only travel between cities with a male family member. In November, a new directive from the Taliban banned women from entering funfairs, parks, gyms, and public baths.
Unless the Taliban is willing to soften its hardline approach, particularly regarding women’s rights, the Taliban is unlikely to gain access to the billions of dollars that they desperately need. They will not receive loans and frozen assets held by the United States (US), International Monetary Fund, and World Bank.
