Back to old role patterns
Afghan women are banned from universities
© Golib Tolibov / Adobe Stock
They are pushed further and further out of their previous lives. Afghan women are being deprived of work, self-determination, freedom and now the right to education. They are pushed into an old life that they thought was already behind them.
The Taliban have further restricted women’s rights in Afghanistan. Even the last hope of self-determined learning was taken away from the women. They were banned from universities and colleges. According to a paper addressed to all universities and private institutions, higher education for women will be suspended on the basis of a cabinet decision, as reported by the “Tagesschau”. And that with immediate effect. Signed by Sheikh Nada Mohammed Nadim, the Taliban Acting Minister of Education. There was no justification.
Women are banned from universities in Afghanistan – they continue to resist
The education minister is believed to be very close to the supreme Taliban leader Haibatullah Achundzada. The people against whose radical instructions courageous Afghan women have repeatedly taken to the streets in recent weeks and months.
In August 2021, the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan. The universities already had to introduce new rules at this point. Entrances and classrooms were separated by gender. Women could only be taught by other women or old men. Most teenage girls have already been excluded from further education.
Less than three months ago, thousands of women across the country had taken university entrance tests. They wanted to study teaching or medicine. Now many are on the verge of collapse, they are angry and continue to try to defend themselves against the radical dominance of men. “Don’t make education political,” they shouted in Kabul that morning, according to the “Tagesschau”. They don’t want to have their right to education taken away from them, not again like they did more than 20 years ago.
Afghan women are being deprived of their self-determination
In 2001, the US overthrew the Taliban in Afghanistan and for almost 20 years gave some freedom back to women – at least some of them. They could go to secondary schools, attend universities and work. In 2021, the Taliban took power again. In order to systematically restrict women’s rights in all areas of life, they issued more than 30 decrees.
Girls are not allowed to go to school after the sixth grade, women are not allowed to work without the permission of their husbands (or a man of the family) – or the jobs are closed to women. Taliban fighters insult them on the street if they show their skin, and in some cases they are not allowed to leave the house without a male escort. You are not allowed to be in parks or gyms. In addition, there is the obligation to veil the face and the ban on speaking loudly or laughing in public.
The Afghan women are hoping for the support of the international community. The US and UK condemn the ban on women from universities. “The Taliban cannot expect to become a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all Afghans, particularly human rights and the fundamental freedoms of women and girls,” US Representative Robert Wood said at a session of the UN Security Council on Afghanistan.
Sources used: tagesschau.de, zeit.de