The Taliban have banned women from universities in Afghanistan, sparking international condemnation and despair among young people in the country.
After the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, they banned most women and girls from attending high school. 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.
Reasons they gave for the university ban were women's failure to observe a dress code and the study of certain subjects and courses.
“We told girls to have proper hijab but they didn't and they wore dresses like they are going to a wedding ceremony,” they said. Afghan women are now mostly restricted from working outside the home, they must cover their faces in public, and they have to be accompanied by a male chaperone when they travel.
Furthermore, they continue to be subjected to multiple forms of gender-based violence. The Taliban disagreed with past Afghan statutes that allowed the employment of Afghan women in a mixed-sex workplace. The claim was that this was a breach of purdah and Sharia law.
The Taliban has now claimed that Afghan women and girls have not been permanently banned from universities and schools but that their education is being “postponed”.
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