The minister of the Taliban government stated that women should not study exact sciences. Photo: Internet The Taliban’s Minister of Higher Education Mawlawi Muhammad Nido Nadim outlined the reasons for the ban on women’s education at universities in Afghanistan. According to the minister, one of the reasons for the ban is that women and girls […]
The minister of the Taliban government stated that women should not study exact sciences.
Photo: InternetThe Taliban’s Minister of Higher Education Mawlawi Muhammad Nido Nadim outlined the reasons for the ban on women’s education at universities in Afghanistan.
According to the minister, one of the reasons for the ban is that women and girls were leaving home without a mahram (male relatives), which contradicts Sharia law.
The minister also stated that the co-education of men and women and the failure to observe Islamic hijab are other reasons for the ban.
Mawlawi Muhammad Nido Nadim added that another reason for the ban is that some universities and fields of study, such as engineering and agricultural professions, are not suitable for women.
“Because they have a more important and more worthy duty than these specialties,” said the Taliban’s Minister of Higher Education.
He also explained that the Taliban are “not against education or against women, but this decision was made solely to preserve the honor and dignity of Afghan women.”
The Taliban’s explanation has resonated both within the country and beyond its borders. Even the majority of theologians in Afghanistan and other Islamic countries condemned this decision by the Taliban.
In particular, the public movement Jamiat-e-Eslah Afghanistan, in its statement, called on the Taliban to reverse this decision, “as it undermines religious and national interests and destroys the integrity of the nation.”
Jamiat-e-Eslah Afghanistan, whose activities were recently suspended by the Taliban, stated: “If the government has identified problems in the education system that contradict Sharia law, it should address them in the process. Banning women from attending universities is not a solution to the problem.”
On December 20, 2022, the Ministry of Higher Education of the Taliban government sent a letter to the leadership of private and public universities demanding a “temporary” ban on the education of girls.
A representative of the Ministry of Higher Education of Afghanistan emphasized in the letter that according to the cabinet’s decision, private and public universities are instructed to “immediately suspend access for female students to education.”