‘Taliban have taken away our hopes’: Afghan women reel from university ban

Saedia Safi, a 21-year-old medical student, had been preparing to take the final exam of her sixth semester when she was told that women and girls would no longer be allowed at Afghan colleges and universities — and that female students in the dormitory should leave.

“Taliban have taken away our hopes. I felt I was spending a long gloomy night that would never end after I heard the news,” Saedia told the Star in Persian via WhatsApp.

“We were approximately 120 girls in the dormitory that were studying medicine. We all started to cry. … Passersby would think that just somebody had passed away.”

Amid their crying, the students contacted their families, who had seen the news on television.

Safi’s school was in Nangarhar, a province in the east of Afghanistan. Her home was four hours away.

“I called to my mother and we both continued to cry. Then she said that I had to go home, because everything had been destroyed.”

The Taliban expelled female students from the university dormitory in eastern Nangarhar province. Students like Safi were from remote provinces, and some are now facing hardships.

The Taliban minister of education, Neda Mohammad Nadeem, said in an interview with local TV that female students had been going from their homes in one province to another province for their education, without being accompanied by men such as their father or brother.

That, he said, was not acceptable according to Sharia law.

He spelled out that students not wearing the hijab was another reason for closure of universities for women and girls.

Safi said the students’ dress code was exactly what the Taliban had requested — they were covered from head to toe, even their eyes were not visible.

“Even one day, if they had said that we should cover our eyes, we were ready to do that, but they must not close the university,” she added.

Numerous countries, in particular Islamic ones, have condemned the Taliban decision, adding that keeping women from education is against the teachings of Islam.

But Nadeem characterized that international condemnation as interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs.

“Calling On Afghan men. Stand up with Afghan women. Now is the time. What are you waiting for?” Karen Decker, the U.S. chargé d’affaires to Afghanistan tweeted in the wake of resignations from some university professors in the country.

“Heartened by Afghan unity — resignations, protests, anger, despair & resolve — powerful expressions of solidarity, community and faith. We see you. We hear you. We support you.”

Earlier, the deputy representative of the United Nations in Afghanistan, Markus Putzel, had bitterly reacted to the decision of Taliban, and called it a “repressive” move that put the future of the country at risk.

“This decision is another major setback for Afghanistan women and girls,” said Naheed Farid, a former Afghan parliamentarian and professional specialist at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. “The Taliban are gradually eradicating women from all spheres of life. Now it’s time for the international community to stop symbolic actions of statements and resolutions. … It’s time for international community to put substance beyond symbolism and seek an alternative to the Taliban,” Farid said to Star via WhatsApp.

A number of male students of Kabul Polytechnic University announced last week that they would not return to classes until the reopening of universities for girls. Male students of IT, urban development, civil engineering and engineering departments of Polytechnic University of Kabul also announced that they would not continue to attend classes. They wrote in a letter to the president of the university that closing the gates of universities to girls and women is “systematic discrimination,” and that they will not come to classes until their fellow students return. Male students of the Nangarhar medical faculty, for instance, left the exam salon in response to the Taliban’s decision. Meanwhile, dozens of university professors had resigned.

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