© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A member of Taliban speaks with feminine college students exterior the Kabul Training College in Kabul, Afghanistan, February 26, 2022. REUTERS/Stringer/File Picture
By Charlotte Greenfield and Mohammad Yunus Yawar
KABUL (Reuters) -Afghanistan’s Taliban-run increased training ministry on Tuesday suspended entry to universities by feminine college students till additional discover, drawing robust condemnation from america, Britain and the United Nations.
A letter, confirmed by a spokesperson for the upper training ministry, instructed Afghan private and non-private universities to droop entry to feminine college students instantly, in accordance with a Cupboard resolution.
The announcement by the Taliban administration, which has not been internationally recognised, got here because the United Nations Safety Council met in New York on Afghanistan.
Overseas governments, together with america, have stated {that a} change in insurance policies on girls’s training is required earlier than it will probably contemplate formally recognising the Taliban-run administration, which can be topic to heavy sanctions.
“The Taliban can not anticipate to be a professional member of the worldwide neighborhood till they respect the rights of all Afghans, particularly the human rights and elementary freedom of girls and ladies,” U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Robert Wooden informed the council, describing the transfer as “completely indefensible.”
Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward (NASDAQ:) stated the suspension was “one other egregious curtailment of girls’s rights and a deep and profound disappointment for each single feminine scholar.”
“Additionally it is one other step by the Taliban away from a self-reliant and affluent 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 indicators all ladies’ excessive colleges can be opened.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric stated the transfer on Tuesday was “clearly one other damaged promise from the Taliban.”
“It is one other very troubling transfer and it is troublesome to think about how the nation can develop, cope with all the challenges that it has, with out lively participation of girls and the training of girls,” he informed reporters in New York.
Shortly earlier than the announcement on universities, U.N. particular envoy for Afghanistan Roza Otunbayeva stated the closure of excessive colleges had “undermined” the Taliban administration’s relationship with the worldwide neighborhood and was “extraordinarily unpopular amongst Afghans and even throughout the Taliban management.”
“So long as ladies stay excluded from college and the de facto authorities proceed to ignore different acknowledged issues of the worldwide neighborhood, we stay at one thing of an deadlock,” she stated.
The choice got here as many college college students have been sitting end-of-term exams. One mom of a college scholar, who requested to not be named for safety causes, stated her daughter known as her in tears when she heard of the letter, fearing she may now not proceed her medical research in Kabul.
“The ache that not solely I .. and (different) moms have in our coronary heart, couldn’t be described. We’re all feeling this ache, they’re apprehensive for the way forward for their kids,” she stated.
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