The Taliban: Not the Taliban of the 2020s, but the Taliban’s Promise to Educate Women and Minorities in the U.S.

But it was no use. She found armed Taliban guards at her campus in Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul, preventing female students from entering.

The new government was quick with assurances that this time would be different, that the Taliban of the 2020s was not the Taliban of the 1990s, and that there would be no brutal campaign of repression against the women of Afghanistan.

Maybe they were telling the truth, Nilaab thought. She hoped so. She had returned to her homeland as a teenager after a decade in exile, and she was not eager to repeat the experience.

The edict, issued by the Ministry of Higher Education, said women were suspended from attending public and private centers of higher education until further notice. Taliban officials have not responded to multiple request to explain the move.

The Taliban have implemented strict interpretations of Islamic law despite promising a more moderate rule respecting rights for women and minorities.

The Taliban were ousted in 2001 by a U.S.-led coalition for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and returned to power after America’s chaotic departure last year.

The Taliban and girls’ education: a plea to freedom in the country and in the fight for a future in the 21st century

The ban was needed because he believes that some subjects violated the principles of Islam by mixing genders in universities. He also added the ban would be in place until further notice.

Women are mostly taught to teach Afghan girls from grades one to six. So ordering them home raised concerns that the Taliban intends to ban all formal schooling for girls by banning their teachers.

I can’t do what I want with my life. The third-year journalism and communication student at the university said that everything is disappearing before his eyes and that he could not do anything about it. She did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals.

Is being a girl a crime? She wished she weren’t a girl if that was the case. My father had a dream that my daughter would become a journalist. That is now destroyed. How will a person react in this situation?

I will continue my studies no matter what. I’m starting online studies. She said that she would have to leave the country and go to another country if it didn’t work.

Without active participation of women and education, it’s difficult to imagine how a country can deal with all of its challenges.

The U.S. Ambassador to the UN Security Council apologizes for the Taliban’s “Chiral Fire”, and “The Taliban Closed the Gates of University”

Robert Wood, the deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the Taliban cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all Afghans.

The Taliban’s request to represent the country at the UN was deferred again but the previous government in Afghanistan still holds the U.N. seat.

Afghanistan’s charge d’affairs said that the announcement “marks a new low in violation of most fundamental and universal human rights for all of humanity.”

A spokesman for the ministry of higher education, Ziaullah Hashmi confirmed the news to NPR and tweeted out the announcement himself with the words “important news.”

“What news is worse than this?” said Zahra in a voice message left for NPR. She requested her family name not be used, fearing she’d be identified by Taliban officials. I have been shaking with anger. I can’t even cry.”

We lost our hope from the Taliban. The female students had their last exam tomorrow,” she said. “But the Taliban closed the gates of university today.”

While they had repeatedly promised the international community that the ban was temporary, in March the group abruptly reneged on a promise to allow most girls back to school. The decision was made so suddenly that many female students had returned to class when their teachers were forced to kick them out. Many students broke down in tears.

Taliban officials have given various excuses for the continued ban, from wanting to review the girls’ curriculum to discussions over their uniforms.

The decision-making process made it possible for woman to attend university even with strict conditions: They had to cover their hair and face at all times, wear loose black robes and abide by strict gender segregation. It is not clear how many women were still attending university.

Where Should Girls Go To School? An Afghan Perspective on the Taliban’s Challenge to Reconsider the Education–An America’s First Choice

He believes that certain Taliban officials hope that the rumors will cause international pressure to force the leaders to reconsider the ban.

“I genuinely think that the man in charge thinks that this is what an Islamic society ought to look like,” says Obaidullah Baheer, a Kabul-based lecturer at the American University of Afghanistan. He told NPR that he had a view on where young girls should go to school, and that it was within their households. So I guess for all intents and purposes, this is a gender apartheid. This is something like that.

Many world leaders, as well as prominent Afghan figures, called for the Taliban to reverse its decision after learning of the news.

“Education is a basic human right,” it added. “Excluding women and girls from secondary and tertiary education not only denies them this right, it denies Afghan society as a whole the benefit of the contributions that women and girls have to offer. It denies all of Afghanistan a future.

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She said that everything is over for her. I only wanted to be educated and to be a good person in my community and to be an engineer. I can’t do that anymore. Life doesn’t mean anything to me.

One school principal said that she received a notification via the messaging service WhatsApp from Taliban officials ordering her to send home all women working in the school until further notice – and that she had to go, too. She exclaimed that it doesn’t make sense.

The move was expected – and dreaded – by observers as the Taliban’s supreme leader Mullah Haibutullah Akhundzada imposes his vision of an Afghanistan which is ultra-conservative, even by the hardline group’s standards.

He said women were mixing with men while traveling to distant universities. Nadeem added that some women were being allowed to study subjects not compatible with Afghan culture or Islam, like engineering and agriculture.

The woman who runs three centers for high school-aged girls is waiting for the Taliban to rule on whether she can keep operating.

“I don’t sleep,” said Mohammadi in broken English. “All the girls calling me and I promise I will stay for them,” she said – that she would defend their interests. Then, she burst into tears.

Mohammadi only worked with and taught women, obeying the Taliban’s strict gender segregation rules. She ensures that her students do not offend the Taliban by wearing black face veils and black robes. “They wear the hijab,” she said. The follow “all the rules of Taliban.”

Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy who was the architect of the Taliban’s return to power through an agreement struck with Washington to withdraw American and Western forces, described the move as “shocking and incomprehensible” to a Pakistani newspaper. The Afghans were enraged by it. It evoked the ire of former senior diplomats.

NATO’s last senior civilian representative was in Afghanistan. Jawed, who was an Afghan diplomat, commented that he was shocked by how many people were shocked. What did you all expect? Really?

The Taliban Suspension and the Status of Women in Afghanistan: A Statement by the Former Afghan Prime Minister, State Department, and US Ambassador to Afghanistan

She said that it was a terrible scene. “Most of the girls, including myself, were crying and asking them to let us go in … If you lose all your rights and you can’t do anything about it, how would you feel?”

The group has done the opposite of what it said it would do, stripping away the freedoms they have fought for over the last two decades.

She said that she thought that it was possible to overcome sorrow and fear by getting educated. This time is different than the others. It is just unacceptable and unbelievable.”

The former President of Afghanistan, who fled when the Taliban took power, called the group illegitimate rulers holding the entire population hostage in a statement.

“The current problem of women’s education and work in the country is very serious, sad, and the most obvious and cruel example of gender apartheid in the 21st century,” Ghani wrote. I have said before that if one girl becomes literate, she will change five future generations and if she isn’t literate, she will ruin five future generations.

Another former Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, also expressed “deep regret” over the suspension. The country’s development, population, and self-sufficiency rely on the education and training of every child, girl, and boy of this land.

The British Prime Minister, US State Department spokesman and US Ambassador to Afghanistan all issued similar statements.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/22/asia/taliban-bans-female-students-afghanistan-reaction-intl-hnk/index.html

A Girl Saves a Girl: She’s Going Through Its Rains, My Heart is Just Loss, and I’m Just Lost

“Preventing half of the population from contributing meaningfully to society and the economy will have a devastating impact on the whole country,” said the UN mission in Afghanistan in a statement.

Then in September, she barely survived a suicide attack at the Kaaj education center in Kabul, which killed at least 25 people, most of whom are believed to be young women. Dozens of women took to the streets of Kabul after the attack in protest.

She missed the explosion by a short time, but she is being identified by one name. When she ran back into her classroom, she was met with the scattered bodies of her friends.

The brushes with death made her want to follow her own dreams even more, as she said she dreamed of her friends who died before her eyes.

Though she was accepted into a bachelors program weeks after the September bombing, she decided to defer her university plans for a year, instead returning to rebuild the destroyed education center from scratch. She wanted to encourage other girls to continue their educations, she said.

“I am just lost. She told CNN that she didn’t know what to say. “Since last night, I have been imagining every friend of mine who lost their lives in the Kaaj attack. What was they sacrificing for?

The Taliban, Taliban and the Status of Higher Education: Why Do Women in Kabul Live?” a Female-Leading MLA explains how the Taliban does not tolerate women

But there were women employees in schools across Kabul – including teachers, principals and other administrators – who were marking exams and undertaking routine administrative tasks.

“We don’t have anywhere to go to ask for an explanation,” she said – because women are not welcome in many Taliban-run government ministries. “Now we just have to accept what comes. You can’t even think of asking for a reason.”

She told NPR she was scared she would get in trouble for teaching about Islam to girls. She requested anonymity because of her fear of being identified. “This is my main source of income,” she said. “I’ll have to secretly teach girls the Qur’an.”

The footage on Afghan activists’ online store shows male medical students storming out of their classrooms to support their female colleagues who have been suspended from college. Another shared footage of men and women gathered in apparent protest outside another university.

Speaking in the first public statement by the Minister of Higher Education since the ban on women attending higher education was issued, Sheikh Neda Mohammad Nadeem blamed female students for their own troubles.

He said the Afghan government was “working on solving issues within the framework of Islamic law.” The same government has insisted for over a year that it is working to resolve some of the issues that have kept girls out of high school.

The minister did not mention that female teachers were being kicked out of their schools or that girls could not attend primary schools. Parents and teachers don’t know what the future holds without any comment about the concerns.

The Taliban have banned women from working for ngos in Afghanistan: a response to economy ministry spokesman Qari din Mohammed Hanif

Any organization that violates the order will have their license revoked in Afghanistan, according to a letter from Economy Minister Qari din Mohammed Hanif. The ministry’s spokesman confirmed the letter’s content to The Associated Press.

The ministry said it received serious complaints from female staff not wearing the correct headscarf. It is not known if the order applies to all women or only Afghan women working at NGOs.

There were not much details available because of concerns over how the latest Taliban move would affect a ban on Afghan women leaving the home.

“It’s a heartbreaking announcement,” said Maliha Niazai, a master trainer at an NGO teaching young people about issues such as gender-based violence. “Are we not human beings? Why are they treating us with this cruelty?”

She is the only one supporting her family and her job is important because she is currently serving her country. “Will the officials support us after this announcement? If not they’re grabbing our food from our mouths. She wanted to know.

“The job gives me more than a … living, it is a representation of all the efforts I’ve made,” she said, declining to give her name fearing for her own safety.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/25/1145465257/the-taliban-have-banned-women-from-working-for-ngos-in-afghanistan

The Afghanistan Women’s March against Repression and Punishment: A United Nations-backed Measure of Disgrace for Women in the High School and Universities

The UN said that taking away the free will of women to choose their own fate and the exclusion of them from all areas of public and political life jeopardizes the country’s peace and stability.

He gave no further details, and did not elaborate on the ages affected with the ban or how it would be enforced. It wasn’t known why the measure only applies to Kabul mosques.

The women are screaming and hiding in a side street to escape the water cannon. They then resume their protest, with chants of “Disgraceful!”

One of the protest organizers, Maryam, said between 100 and 150 women took part in the protest, moving in small groups from different parts of the city toward a central meeting point. She did not give her last name for fear of reprisals.

An official in the Taliban government, Minister of Higher Education Nida Mohammad Nadim, spoke about the ban for the first time on Thursday in an interview with the Afghan state television.

They have banned girls from high school and universities, and have barred women from most fields of employment. Women have also been ordered to wear head-to-toe clothing in public and have been banned from parks and gyms.

Over the past two decades of a U.S.backed government, Afghan society has increasingly embraced the education of girls and women.