Rules on female dress came quickly, followed by gender-segregated education.
Now, the Taliban has officially banned women from the country’s universitieseffective immediately.
I went to the university in the morning anyway.
Kabul University in the 1950s. (Photo:Wikimedia Commons,Public domain)
If you lose all your rights and you cant do anything about it, how would you feel?
Girls above sixth grade in Afghanistan similarly lost their right to an education this past March.
Currently, only the youngest female students are able to go to school.
Photo: ANDREUS/Depositphotos
The Taliban justifies their ban on university for women through their own twistedreadings of Islamic law and Afghan culture.
In fact, Afghan women are in no way a new feature on the university scene.
Until around 1980, womenstudied alongside men.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe banand the Taliban’s opposition to women’s educationhas received pushback.
Prominent cricket players in the country have expressed their opposition.
Female university students themselves have protested at the gates which are locked against them, with some arrests reported.
At least 60 Afghan academics have resigned their posts in protest.
These bans are against Islamic values and against national interest.
It impacts everyone, not just the women.
The Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the new decree was neither Islamic nor humane.
While the Taliban remain in power, a consortium of universities is stepping up to do their part.
These universities areFutureLearnpartners, and this platform will allow their courses to reach women in need.
Kabul University in the 1950s.
