Taliban’s ban on women in universities necessary to prevent gender mixing: minister – National | 24CA News
The minister of upper training within the Taliban authorities on Thursday defended his choice to ban girls from universities — a decree that had triggered a worldwide backlash.
Discussing the matter for the primary time in public, Nida Mohammad Nadim mentioned the ban issued earlier this week was essential to stop the blending of genders in universities and since he believes some topics being taught violated the rules of Islam. He mentioned the ban was in place till additional discover.
In an interview with Afghan tv, Nadim pushed again towards the widespread worldwide condemnation, together with from Muslim-majority nations comparable to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar. Nadim mentioned that foreigners ought to cease interfering in Afghanistan’s inside affairs.
Earlier on Thursday, the international ministers of the G7 group of states urged the Taliban to rescind the ban, warning that “gender persecution may amount to a crime against humanity.” The ministers warned after a digital assembly that “Taliban insurance policies designed to erase girls from public life may have penalties for a way our nations interact with the Taliban. The G7 group contains Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.
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Female college students turned away from Afghanistan universities after Taliban ban
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A former provincial governor, police chief and navy commander, Nadim was appointed minister in October by the supreme Taliban chief and beforehand pledged to stamp out secular education. Nadim opposes feminine training, saying it’s towards Islamic and Afghan values.
Other causes he gave for the college ban have been girls’s failure to watch a gown code and the research of sure topics and programs.
“We told girls to have proper hijab but they didn’t and they wore dresses like they are going to a wedding ceremony,” he mentioned. “Girls were studying agriculture and engineering, but this didn’t match Afghan culture. Girls should learn, but not in areas that go against Islam and Afghan honor.”
He added that work was underway to repair these points and universities would reopen for girls as soon as they have been resolved. The Taliban made comparable guarantees about highschool entry for women, saying lessons would resume for them as soon as “technical issues” round uniforms and transport have been sorted out, however ladies stay shut out of lecture rooms.
The Taliban tried to repair what he claimed have been issues they inherited from the earlier administration since their takeover final 12 months. He alleged that individuals weren’t following guidelines and that this justified the college ban.
In Afghanistan, there was some home opposition to the college ban, together with from a number of cricket gamers. Cricket is a vastly widespread sport within the nation, and gamers have tons of of 1000’s of followers on social media.
Another present of help for feminine college college students got here at Nangarhar Medical University. Local media reported that male college students walked out in solidarity and refused to sit down for exams till girls’s college entry was reinstated.
Despite initially promising a extra average rule respecting rights for girls and minorities, the Taliban have broadly applied their interpretation of Islamic legislation, or Sharia, since they seized energy in August 2021.
They have banned ladies from center faculty and highschool, barred girls from most fields of employment and ordered them to put on head-to-toe clothes in public. Women are additionally banned from parks and gymnasiums. At the identical time Afghan society, whereas largely conventional, has more and more embraced the training of women and girls over the previous twenty years.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, chatting with reporters in Washington on Thursday, echoed worldwide opposition to the Taliban choice to ban girls from college research. He mentioned the Taliban is not going to get hold of much- wanted improved relations with the world in the event that they “continue on this course.”
“What they’ve done is to try to sentence Afghan women and girls to a dark future without opportunity,” he mentioned. “And the bottom line is that no country is going to be able to succeed, much less thrive, if it denies half its population the opportunity to contribute. And to be clear, and we’re engaged with other countries on this right now. There is going to be a cost.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu mentioned Thursday that the ban was “neither Islamic nor humane.” Speaking at a joint news convention along with his Yemeni counterpart, he referred to as on the Taliban to reverse their choice.
“What harm is there in women’s education? What harm does it do to Afghanistan?” Cavusoglu mentioned. “Is there an Islamic explanation? On the contrary, our religion, Islam, is not against education, on the contrary, it encourages education and science.”
Saudi Arabia, which till 2019 enforced sweeping restrictions on girls’s journey, employment and different essential features of their each day lives, together with driving, additionally urged the Taliban to alter course.
The Saudi international ministry expressed “astonishment and regret” at Afghan girls being denied a college training. In an announcement late Wednesday, the ministry mentioned the choice was “astonishing in all Islamic countries.”
Previously, Qatar, which has engaged with the Taliban authorities, additionally condemned the choice.
In the capital of Kabul, about two dozen girls marched within the streets Thursday, chanting in Dari for freedom and equality. “All or none. Don’t be afraid. We are together,” they chanted.
In video obtained by The Associated Press, one girl mentioned Taliban safety forces used violence to disperse the group.
“The girls were beaten and whipped,” she mentioned. “They also brought military women with them, whipping the girls. We ran away, some girls were arrested. I don’t know what will happen.”
Girls have been banned from faculty past the sixth grade because the Taliban’s return.
In northeastern Takhar province, teenage ladies mentioned the Taliban on Thursday pressured them out of a non-public training coaching heart and informed them they not had the proper to review. One scholar, 15-year-old Zuhal, mentioned the ladies have been overwhelmed.
Another, 19-year-old Maryam, mentioned whereas crying: “This training center was our hope. What can these girls do? They were full of hope and coming here to learn. It is really a pity. (The Taliban) have taken all our hopes. They closed schools, universities, and the training center, which was very small.”
Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.
