Pakistan Urges Taliban to revisit decision

Pakistan Urges Taliban to Revisit Decision Banning Women From Universities

Expressing disappointment over the Taliban’s decision to ban women from universities in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan urged the Taliban regime to revisit its decision.

“Pakistan is disappointed to learn about the suspension of the university and higher education for female students in Afghanistan,” the Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday, December 21.

The ministry further noted that Pakistan strongly believes that every man and woman has the inherent right to education in accordance with the injunctions of Islam.

In an official letter sent to state and private universities, the Taliban Ministry of Higher Education indefinitely banned higher education for female students on Tuesday, December 20.

Higher education is “suspended” for female students until further notice, the letter reads.

This decision ignited strong and worldwide condemnations and calls for its reversal.

Moreover, the group’s forces barred girls from going to private tuition centers and educational centers the next day in the capital Kabul and some other provinces.

Against the Taliban’s cabinet decision, a number of female university students left home to attend their regular classes on Wednesday at Kabul University. They were, however, stopped by the Taliban forces in front of the university’s entrance gate.

A video shared on social media shows that girls students are crying in front of Kabul University’s entrance gate while hugging one another.

Schoolgirls above the 6th grade faced the same decision and cried before cameras when they were banned from secondary education by the Taliban in March 2021.