Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on Tuesday on university education for females nationwide, as the hard-line Islamists continue to crush women’s right to education and freedom.
The Taliban increased restrictions on all aspects of women’s lives despite promising a softer rule when they gained control last year and disregarded international protests.
‘You all are informed to immediately implement the mentioned order of suspending the education of females until further notice,’ said a letter issued to all government and private universities, signed by the Minister for Higher Education, Neda Mohammad Nadeem.
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The spokesman for the ministry, Ziaullah Hashimi, who tweeted the letter, confirmed the order in a text message to reporters on Wednesday morning.
Washington condemned the decision ‘in the strongest terms.’
‘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,’ State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington.
The ban on higher education comes less than three months after thousands of girls and women sat university entrance exams across the country, with many aspiring to choose teaching and medicine as future careers.
The universities are currently on winter break and due to reopen in March.
After the takeover of the country by the Taliban, universities were forced to implement new rules including gender-segregated classrooms and entrances, while women were only permitted to be taught by women professors or old men.
Most teenage girls across the country have already been banned from secondary school education, severely limiting university intake.
Journalism student Madina, who wanted only her first name published, struggled to comprehend the weight of Tuesday’s order.