‘My dreams are over.’ Taliban ban on women in university sparks private anguish, public protests

Wurranga Arif, an 18-year-old student of civil engineering, was dressed head to toe according to Taliban rules, to go to her third-semester promotion exam at the largest university in Kabul.

She was on her way when she was told the gates of universities were being closed to female students.

The announcement had come: The Taliban were banning women and girls from university. The news this week is drawing international condemnation as the latest regressive step from a regime that regained power more than a year ago.

For women in Afghanistan, it is devastating.

Arif says that upon hearing the news, she thought that everything in her life was over. She felt that she was in a grave from which there is no return, she told the Star in an interview.

“My dreams are over forever. I think the weight of the sky is on my shoulders, and I am very sad,” Arif said via WhatsApp, speaking in Persian.

“In this situation, Afghanistan could be called a graveyard. My country is heading toward destruction,” Arif said. She still holds out a bit of hope for a reversal of the decision and a chance to go back to university.

It is a decision that will affect thousands of other women in the country.

Female university students cried publicly this week. Some male students left their classes in protest, and a few university lecturers at public and private universities resigned.

Arif asked, “Is it really possible for a country to progress without educating women?” and then answers herself. “Never.”

The Taliban’s decision has been condemned by the United Nations, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Norway, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia — the birthplace of Islam — and the U.A.E., an influential country in the Persian Gulf, along with Pakistan were the only three countries that recognized the Taliban regime in the 1990s.

Dr. Davood Moradian, director of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies, who relocated to the U.K. after the fall of the Afghan republic last year, said that he was only surprised by those who have been surprised by the Taliban move.

“To their credit, they have been consistent in their determination to have the world’s first gender apartheid. Only their apologist and naive observers chose to ignore this,” Moradian told the Star via WhatsApp from London.

Universities are being closed to women in a country where schools for girls have already been closed by the Taliban, despite repeated requests from the international community to reopen them.

Shaharzad Akbar, the head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission during the Republic era, said the decision of the Taliban to close the gates of universities to women has created a sense of anger in society.

“The new decision of the Taliban once again proved to us how misogynistic the Taliban are,” Akbar said via WhatsApp, from outside the country.

Akbar said that the continuation of the situation will hurt the whole country.

“The situation is getting worse every day. The Islamic world should express its opinion about the situation in Afghanistan and stand by the women of my country, because the decisions of the Taliban on women present a bad and negative image and understanding of Islam to the world.”

Mirwais Balkhi, the minister of education in the previous government of Afghanistan, who currently lives in the U.S., said this decision and others make clear that the Taliban have not changed in any way, in their goals or in their thinking.

“This was the last nail in the hope of women. With this situation, there is no reason for the girls to hope, on the one hand, and for all of us to hope for the reform of the Taliban,” Balkhi told the Star via WhatsApp, speaking in Persian.

Balkhi believes that the Taliban will not be tamed by the language of tolerance. They consider the tolerance of the world to be weakness and failure, he said. He added that this situation emboldens the Taliban and their terrorist associates.

“Afghanistan is moving toward underdevelopment and social, cultural and economic collapse.”

With the takeover by the Taliban on Aug. 15, 2021, the situation of Afghan women in this country is getting worse day by day. New restrictions against women are announced every few days or weeks.

Afghanistan is now the only country in the world whose women are not allowed to go to secondary schools, universities, parks, public women’s bathrooms, and sports clubs, and once again, like the Taliban in the 1990s, they are whipped and stoned in public on different charges.

SHARE: