Afghanistan: Taliban continue violations against women by banning girls from taking university entrance examination

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban has continued to tighten the noose on women in the country. After preventing girls from attending middle and high schools, the Taliban has indefinitely banned girls from taking exams at private universities and tightened its ban on women’s education in the country.

University orders to reject females

Taliban Ministry of Higher Education spokesman Ziaudullah Hashmi confirmed Saturday to Voice of America Voanews that they have sent a letter to private Afghan universities across the country ordering them not to register students for the upcoming spring semester.

Entrance exams are scheduled for the end of February, and the letter warned that law-abiding universities would face legal action.

The Taliban have severely restricted women’s rights and freedom, excluded them from most areas of the workforce, banned the use of parks, gyms and public bathrooms, and barred girls from secondary school after the sixth grade since regaining power in August 2021.

Closing universities and schools to girls

Last month, the Taliban authorities abruptly closed universities to female students until further notice, and banned women from working for national and international NGOs, the Voanews report said.

The latest bans have triggered global protests and demands to reverse them urgently. They also urged the UN to send high-level delegations to Kabul this month to convey international concerns and urge Taliban leaders to ease restrictions on women.

UN moves to stop Taliban abuses

UN humanitarian coordinator Martin Griffiths traveled to the Afghan capital Kabul earlier this week to persuade the Taliban to lift a ban on aid workers, warning it was undermining humanitarian programs in the war-torn country amid a prolonged drought.

Last week, Amina Mohammed, the United Nations deputy secretary-general and the world body’s top women’s official, led a high-level delegation to Afghanistan and met with senior Taliban officials to promote the rights of women and girls.

She told reporters in New York on Wednesday: The international community’s best influence to persuade the Taliban to drop restrictions on Afghan women’s rights is the group’s desire for international recognition.

No foreign government has yet given legitimacy to Afghanistan’s de facto rulers, owing to human rights concerns and their treatment of women.

Taliban Insistence on Halting Aid

The Taliban has refused to back down on restrictions on women, saying they are in line with Afghan culture and Islamic law. The refusal has prompted donor countries to halt financial aid and maintain economic sanctions, except for humanitarian aid. Taliban and UN officials say the ban on female education has kept more than one million girls out of school.