Speaking at a graduation ceremony for clerics and judges in Kandahar on Saturday, the Taliban Minister for Higher Education, Neda Mohammad Nadeem, warned that anyone who seeks to undermine the group’s government deserve to be killed.
“Those of you who create problems for the people with the schemes of foreigners, God willing, we are ready to confront and suppress you,” Need Mohammad Nadeem warned.
The Taliban minister who banned women from universities in December said that “those who destroy the system, whether by speech, pen, or action, are all rebels and obligated to be killed.”
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Neda Mohammad Nadeem also said that he was working on reviewing and developing education standards and establish leadership in religious science alongside modern sciences.
On 7 March, ahead of the International Women’s Day, the European Union announced that it had sanctioned Neda Mohammad Nadeem and the group’s Minister for Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, for their roles in “decrees banning women from higher education and gender-segregated practices in public spaces.”
After banning women from universities, Neda Mohammad Nadeem defended the decree as to “prevent the mixing of genders.”
He also said that women’s work, exercise and entertainment bring “indignity“.
