Taliban suspends female students from Afghanistan’s universities | 24CA News

The Taliban-run Afghan greater schooling ministry mentioned on Tuesday that feminine college students wouldn’t be allowed entry to the nation’s universities till additional discover.

A letter, confirmed by a spokesperson for the upper schooling ministry, instructed Afghan private and non-private universities to droop entry to feminine college students instantly, in accordance with a cupboard resolution.

Confirmation of the college restrictions got here the identical night as a UN Security Council session on Afghanistan, at which the UN secretary-general’s particular consultant for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, mentioned the closure of colleges had “undermined” the Taliban administration’s relationship with the worldwide group.

“As long as girls remain excluded from school and the de facto authorities continue to disregard other stated concerns of the international community, we remain at something of an impasse,” she mentioned.

The resolution got here as many college college students are sitting finish of time period exams.

One mom of a college scholar, who requested to not be named for safety causes, mentioned her daughter referred to as her in tears when she heard of the letter, fearing she may not proceed her medical research in Kabul.

“The pain that not only I and [other] mothers have in our heart, could not be described. We are all feeling this pain, they are worried for the future of their children,” she mentioned.

International condemnation

Foreign governments, together with the United States, have mentioned {that a} change in insurance policies on ladies’s schooling is required earlier than it could think about formally recognizing the Taliban-run administration, which can also be topic to heavy sanctions.

“The Taliban cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all Afghans, especially the human rights and fundamental freedom of women and girls,” U.S. Deputy UN Ambassador Robert Wood informed the council, describing the transfer as “absolutely indefensible.”

Britain’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward mentioned the suspension was “another egregious curtailment of women’s rights and a deep and profound disappointment for every single female student.”

“It is also another step by the Taliban away from a self-reliant and prosperous Afghanistan,” she informed the council.

In March, the Taliban drew criticism from many overseas governments and a few Afghans for making a u-turn on alerts that each one ladies’ excessive faculties can be opened.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric mentioned the transfer on Tuesday was “clearly another broken promise from the Taliban.”

“It’s another very troubling move and it’s difficult to imagine how the country can develop, deal with all of the challenges that it has, without active participation of women and the education of women,” he informed reporters in New York.