The United States has condemned, in the strongest terms, Taliban’s indefensible decision to ban women from universities, to keep secondary schools closed to girls in Afghanistan.
This was disclosed at the Press Briefing of the State Department Spokesman, Ned Price on Tuesday after the ban announcement, while restricting women and girls in Afghanistan to exercise their human rights and their fundamental freedoms.
“An order from the so-called Higher Education Ministry on Tuesday stated that women cannot attend Universities either”, the United States.
The United States voiced out that with the implementation of this decree, half of the Afghan population will soon be unable to access education beyond primary school.
According to the United States, “The Taliban’s decision to close secondary schools to girls last March has had a significant impact on our engagement with the Taliban representatives.
“The Taliban made promises to the people of Afghanistan and to the international community that schools would reopen. They claimed that this was a matter of procedures and arrangements and would be quickly reversed”.
United States noted that Afghanistan is already losing more than $1 billion per year in contributions that women could be making to the economy. “Now the Taliban have imposed these losses on the Afghan people for the indefinite future.
“Furthermore, the Taliban have permanently sentenced Afghan women to a darker and more barren future without opportunity. No country can thrive when half of its population is arbitrarily held back”.
Adding that Education is an internationally recognized human right and it iss essential to Afghanistan’s economic growth and its stability.
“This unacceptable stance will have significant consequences for the Taliban and will further alienate the Taliban from the international community and deny them the legitimacy they desire”, United States said.
Meanwhile, The ban decision was announced after a meeting of the Taliban government. Despite initially promising a more moderate rule and women’s and minority rights, the Taliban have widely implemented their harsh interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia.
After banning girls from middle school and high school, restricted women from most employment and ordered them to wear head-to-toe clothing in public. Women are also banned from parks and gyms
A letter shared by the spokesman for the Ministry of Higher Education, Ziaullah Hashmi, tells private and public universities to implement the ban as soon as possible and to inform the ministry once the ban is in place.
Hashmi also tweeted the letter from his account and confirmed its contents in a message to The Associated Press.
The university ban comes weeks after Afghan girls took their high school graduation exams, even though they have been banned from classrooms since the Taliban took over the country last year.