We are doomed, say women students barred from entering Kabul varsities
Armed guards stop Afghan women entering campuses after Taliban ban
You all are informed to immediately implement the mentioned order of suspending education of females until further notice.”
Hundreds of young women were stopped by armed guards yesterday from entering Afghan university campuses, a day after the nation’s Taliban rulers banned them from higher education.
Despite promising a softer rule when they seized power last year, the hardline Islamists have ratcheted up restrictions on all aspects of women’s lives, ignoring international outrage.
A team of AFP journalists saw groups of students gathered outside universities in the capital, Kabul, barred from entering by armed guards and shuttered gates.
Many, dressed in hijabs, were also seen standing in groups on roads leading to the campuses.
“We are doomed. We have lost everything,” said one Kabul student, who asked not to be identified.
Neda Mohammad Nadeem | Minister for Higher Education
Winter break
The Taliban authorities wanted to “suppress” women, said Setara Farahmand, 21, who was studying German literature at Kabul University.
Male students also expressed shock at the latest edict, with some in the eastern city of Jalalabad boycotting their exams in protest.
“It really expresses their illiteracy and low knowledge of Islam and human rights,” said one male university student, asking not to be named.
Most private and government universities are closed for a few weeks over winter, although campuses generally remain open to students and staff.
The decision to bar women from universities came late Tuesday in a terse announcement from Neda Mohammad Nadeem, the minister for higher education.
‘Deply alarmed’
“You all are informed to immediately implement the mentioned order of suspending education of females until further notice,” it said.
Washington condemned the decision “in the strongest terms”, while United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “deeply alarmed”, his spokesman said.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) also denounced the ban, saying it was “seriously denting the credibility of the government”.
The ban comes less than three months after thousands of girls and women were allowed to sit for university entrance exams across the country.
After the Taliban takeover in August last year, universities were forced to implement new rules including gender-segregated classrooms and entrances, while women were only permitted to be taught by professors of the same sex, or old men.