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Four foreign aid groups suspend work in Afghanistan after Taliban bars female employees

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CNN
 — 

Four foreign aid groups said Sunday that they were moving to temporarily suspend their operations in Afghanistan after the Taliban barred female employees of non-governmental organizations from coming to work.

“We cannot effectively reach children, women and men in desperate need in Afghanistan without our female staff,” aid organizations Save the Children, Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE International said in a joint statement Sunday. Another international aid group, Afghanaid, made a similar announcement separately on Sunday.

“Without women driving our response, we would not have jointly reached millions of Afghans in need since August 2021. Beyond the impact on delivery of lifesaving assistance, this will affect thousands of jobs in the midst of an enormous economic crisis,” said the statement, which was signed by the heads of the three NGOs.

“Whilst we gain clarity on this announcement, we are suspending our programmes, demanding that men and women can equally continue our lifesaving assistance in Afghanistan,” the statement added.

The Taliban administration on Saturday ordered all local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to stop their female employees from coming to work, according to a letter by the Ministry of Economy sent to all licensed NGOs. Non-compliance will result in the licenses of said NGOs being revoked, the ministry said.

David Wright, chief operating officer for Save the Children International, told CNN on Monday that the organization was unable to “reach tens of thousands of vulnerable mothers and children right across the country” because of the ban.

“We can’t get out to work because we need our female colleagues to help us get access to women and children. You can’t access young mothers or young children in education if you don’t have female staff, because it’s not appropriate in Afghanistan to have all-male staff dealing with young women or children,” he said.

In the letter, the ministry cites the nonobservance of Islamic dress rules and other laws and regulations as reasons for the decision.

“Lately there have been serious complaints regarding not observing the Islamic hijab and other Islamic Emirate’s laws and regulations,” the letter said, adding that as a result “guidance is given to suspend work of all female employees of national and international non-governmental organizations.”

The new restrictions mark yet another step in the Taliban’s brutal crackdown on the freedoms of Afghan women, following the hardline Islamist group’s takeover of the country in August 2021.

Although the Taliban have repeatedly claimed they will protect the rights of girls and women, they have in fact done the opposite, stripping away the hard-won freedoms for which women have fought tirelessly over the past two decades.

“The supreme leader is doing whatever he can… to make women as powerless as possible, even if there are other factions that say otherwise,” Afghan human rights activist Pashtana Durrani told CNN on Sunday, referring to Afghanistan’s Supreme Leader Alaiqadar Amirul Momineen.

“The Taliban don’t care. They want women to be as limited as possible, especially the supreme leader,” she added.

Earlier this week, the Taliban government suspended university education for all female students in Afghanistan.

In a televised news conference on Thursday, the Taliban’s higher education minister said they had banned women from universities for not observing Islamic dress rules and other “Islamic values,” citing female students traveling without a male guardian. The move sparked outrage among women in Afghanistan.

A group of women took to the streets in the city of Herat on Saturday to protest the university ban. Video footage circulating on social media showed Taliban officials using a water cannon to disperse the female protesters. Girls could be seen running from the water cannon and chanting “cowards” at officials.

Some of the Taliban’s most striking restrictions have been around education, with girls also barred from returning to secondary schools in March. The move devastated many students and their families, who described to CNN their dashed dreams of becoming doctors, teachers or engineers.

The United Nations on Saturday condemned the Taliban’s NGO announcement and said it would try to obtain a meeting with Taliban leadership to seek clarity.

“Women must be enabled to play a critical role in all aspects of life, including the humanitarian response. Banning women from work would violate the most fundamental rights of women, as well as be a clear breach of humanitarian principles,” the UN statement read. “This latest decision will only further hurt those most vulnerable, especially women and girls.”

UNICEF said the order was an “egregious rollback of rights for girls and women (that) will have sweeping consequences on the provision of health, nutrition and education services for children.”

Amnesty International called for the ban to “be reversed immediately” and for the Taliban to “stop misusing their power.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Sunday it was particularly concerned about the future of Afghanistan’s healthcare system and female patients.

The ICRC said that it supports 45 health structures in Afghanistan, including hospitals and medical schools. Among others, it pays the salaries of 10,483 health workers – 33% of whom are women.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also condemned the move Saturday. “Deeply concerned that the Taliban’s ban on women delivering humanitarian aid in Afghanistan will disrupt vital and life-saving assistance to millions,” he wrote on Twitter. “Women are central to humanitarian operations around the world. This decision could be devastating for the Afghan people.”

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said US officials should “not interfere in the internal issues of” Afghanistan.

“Those organizations operative in Afghanistan are obliged to comply with the laws and regulations of our country,” he tweeted Sunday, adding, “We do not permit anyone to state irresponsible words or make threats about the decisions or officials of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under the title of humanitarian aid.”

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Taliban use water cannon on women protesting education order in Afghanistan

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CNN
 — 

A group of women took to the streets in the city of Herat in Afghanistan on Saturday, protesting against a Taliban order this week suspending all female students from attending university in the country.

Video footage circulating on social media showed Taliban officials using a water cannon to disperse the female protesters.

Girls could be seen running from the water cannon and chanting “cowards” at officials.

The Taliban’s announcement this week that it was suspending university education for female students was its latest step in an ongoing clampdown on the freedoms of Afghan women.

The move came despite the group promising when it returned to power last year that it would honor women’s rights.

It follows a similar move in March this year that barred girls from returning to secondary schools.

Male students in universities across the country have responded to the latest education ban by boycotting their exams in protest.

“Education is the duty of men and women,” read a statement from the Mirwais Nika Institute of Higher Education in Kandahar issued Saturday. “It is the fundamental right and secret of the country’s development and self-reliance.”

Students had first asked Taliban officials to reverse the ban but “no positive response” was given, the school said – adding that “dissatisfaction and unhappiness” fueled the boycott.

One university official told CNN that the students’ decision to boycott their admissions exams would lead to classes being put on hold.

The Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021 in a lightning takeover following the withdrawal of US troops, having previously ruled the country from 1996 until 2001 – when the US-led invasion forced the group from power.

Under its previous period of rule the group was notorious for its treatment of women as second-class citizens.

After seizing power last year, the group made numerous promises that it would protect the rights of women and girls.

But activists say the Taliban have reneged on their word and are steadily chipping away at women’s freedoms once again.

On Saturday, the group ordered all local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country to stop female employees from attending work. Non-compliance would result in the revoking of NGO licenses, an official ministry notice read.

A spokesman told CNN the move was due to the non-observation of Islamic dress rules and other laws and regulations of the Islamic Emirate.

Afghan women can no longer work in most sectors.

Their travel rights have also been severely restricted and access to public spaces significantly curtailed. Women are also required to fully cover themselves in public – including their faces.

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Taliban orders NGOs to ban female employees from coming to work

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CNN
 — 

The Taliban administration in Afghanistan has ordered all local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to stop their female employees from coming to work, according to a letter by the Ministry of Economy sent to all licensed NGOs.

Non-compliance will result in revoking the licenses of said NGOs, the ministry said.

The ministry in the letter – whose validity its spokesman Abdul Rahman Habib confirmed to CNN – cites as reasons for the decision the non-observation of Islamic dress rules and other laws and regulations of the Islamic Emirate.

“Lately there have been serious complaints regarding not observing the Islamic hijab and other Islamic Emirate’s laws and regulations,” the letter said, adding that as a result “guidance is given to suspend work of all female employees of National and international non-governmental organizations.”

Earlier this week, the Taliban government suspended university education for all female students in Afghanistan.

A spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education confirmed the university suspension to CNN on Tuesday. A letter published by the education ministry said the decision was made in a cabinet meeting and the order would go into effect immediately.

In a televised news conference on Thursday, the Taliban’s higher education minister said they had banned women from universities for not observing Islamic dress rules and other “Islamic values,” citing female students traveling without a male guardian. The move sparked outrage among women in Afghanistan.

It marks yet another step in the Taliban’s brutal crackdown on the freedoms of Afghan women, following the hardline Islamist group’s takeover of the country in August 2021.

The United Nations on Saturday condemned the Taliban’s announcement.

“Women must be enabled to play a critical role in all aspects of life, including the humanitarian response. Banning women from work would violate the most fundamental rights of women, as well as be a clear breach of humanitarian principles,” the UN statement read.

“This latest decision will only further hurt those most vulnerable, especially women and girls.”

It also added that it would try to obtain a meeting with Taliban leadership to seek clarity.

Amnesty International called for the ban to “be reversed immediately” and for the Taliban to “stop misusing their power.”

“Women and girls should not be punished for demanding and defending their fundamental rights,” it said in a statement. “The right to work for all people, especially women in Afghanistan, must be fully realized in accordance with international human rights law.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday also spoke out. “Deeply concerned that the Taliban’s ban on women delivering humanitarian aid in Afghanistan will disrupt vital and life-saving assistance to millions,” he wrote on Twitter.

“Women are central to humanitarian operations around the world. This decision could be devastating for the Afghan people.”

Though the Taliban has repeatedly claimed it would protect the rights of girls and women, it has in fact done the opposite, stripping away the hard-won freedoms they have fought tirelessly for over the past two decades.

Some of its most striking restrictions have been around education, with girls barred from returning to secondary schools in March. The move devastated many students and their families, who described to CNN their dashed dreams of becoming doctors, teachers or engineers.

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Taliban bans female NGO staff, jeopardizing aid efforts

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  • Taliban orders NGOs to stop female staff from working
  • Comes after suspension of female students from universities
  • U.N. says order would seriously impact humanitarian operations
  • U.N. plans to meet with Taliban to seek clarity

KABUL, Dec 24 (Reuters) – Afghanistan’s Taliban-run administration on Saturday ordered all local and foreign NGOs to stop female employees from working, in a move the United Nations said would hit humanitarian operations just as winter grips a country already in economic crisis.

A letter from the economy ministry, confirmed by spokesperson Abdulrahman Habib, said female employees of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were not allowed to work until further notice because some had not adhered to the administration’s interpretation of Islamic dresscode for women.

It comes days after the administration ordered universities to close to women, prompting global condemnation and sparking some protests and heavy criticism inside Afghanistan.

Both decisions are the latest restrictions on women that are likely to undermine the Taliban-run administration’s efforts to gain international recognition and clear sanctions that are severely hampering the economy.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Twitter he was “deeply concerned” the move “will disrupt vital and life-saving assistance to millions,” adding: “Women are central to humanitarian operations around the world. This decision could be devastating for the Afghan people.”

Ramiz Alakbarov, the U.N. deputy special representative for Afghanistan and humanitarian coordinator, told Reuters that although the U.N. had not received the order, contracted NGOs carried out most of its activities and would be heavily impacted.

“Many of our programmes will be affected,” he said, because they need female staff to assess humanitarian need and identify beneficiaries, otherwise they will not be able to implement aid programs.

International aid agency AfghanAid said it was immediately suspending operations while it consulted with other organisations, and that other NGOs were taking similar actions.

The potential endangerment of aid programmes that millions of Afghans access comes when more than half the population relies on humanitarian aid, according to aid agencies, and during the mountainous nation’s coldest season.

“There’s never a right time for anything like this … but this particular time is very unfortunate because during winter time people are most in need and Afghan winters are very harsh,” said Alakbarov.

He said his office would consult with NGOs and U.N. agencies on Sunday and seek to meet with Taliban authorities for an explanation.

Aid workers say female workers are essential in a country where rules and cultural customs largely prevent male workers from delivering aid to female beneficiaries.

“An important principle of delivery of humanitarian aid is the ability of women to participate independently and in an unimpeded way in its distribution so if we can’t do it in a principled way then no donors will be funding any programs like that,” Alakbarov said.

When asked whether the rules directly included U.N. agencies, Habib said the letter applied to organisations under Afghanistan’s coordinating body for humanitarian organisations, known as ACBAR. That body does not include the U.N., but includes over 180 local and international NGOs.

Their licences would be suspended if they did not comply, the letter said.

Afghanistan’s struggling economy has tipped into crisis since the Taliban took over in 2021, with the country facing sanctions, cuts in development aid and a freeze in central bank assets.

A record 28 million Afghans are estimated to need humanitarian aid next year, according to AfghanAid.

Reporting by Kabul newsroom; additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington
Editing by Mark Potter and Josie Kao

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Taliban ban women from working for domestic, foreign NGOs

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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban government on Saturday ordered all foreign and domestic non-governmental groups in Afghanistan to suspend employing women, allegedly because some female employees didn’t wear the Islamic headscarf correctly. The ban was the latest restrictive move by Afghanistan’s new rulers against women’s rights and freedoms.

The development comes just days after the Taliban banned female students from attending universities across the country. Afghan women have since demonstrated in major cities against the ban, a rare sign of domestic protest since the Taliban seized power last year. The decision has also caused outrage and opposition in Afghanistan and beyond.

The order came in a letter from Economy Minister Qari Din Mohammed Hanif, which said that any NGO found not complying with the order will have their operating license revoked in Afghanistan. The ministry’s spokesman, Abdul Rahman Habib, confirmed the letter’s content to The Associated Press.

The ministry said it had received “serious complaints” about female staff working for NGOs not wearing the “correct” headscarf, or hijab. It was not immediately clear if the order applies to all women or only Afghan women working at the NGOs.

More details were not immediately available amid concerns the latest Taliban ban could be a stepping-stone to a blanket ban on Afghan women leaving the home.

“It’s a heartbreaking announcement,” said Maliha Niazai, a master trainer at an NGO teaching young people about issues such as gender-based violence. “Are we not human beings? Why are they treating us with this cruelty?”

The 25-year-old, who works at Y-Peer Afghanistan and lives in Kabul, said her job was important because she was serving her country and is the only person supporting her family. “Will the officials support us after this announcement? If not, then why are they snatching meals from our mouths?” she asked.

Another NGO worker, a 24-year-old from Jalalabad working the Norwegian Refugee Council, said it was “the worst moment of my life.”

“The job gives me more than a … living, it is a representation of all the efforts I’ve made,” she said, declining to give her name fearing for her own safety.

Also Saturday, Taliban security forces used a water cannon to disperse women protesting the ban on university education for women in the western city of Herat, eyewitnesses said.

According to the witnesses, about two dozen women were heading to the Herat provincial governor’s house on Saturday to protest the ban — many chanting: “Education is our right” — when they were pushed back by security forces firing the water cannon.

Video shared with the AP shows the women screaming and hiding in a side street to escape the water cannon. They then resume their protest, with chants of “Disgraceful!”

One of the protest organizers, Maryam, said between 100 and 150 women took part in the protest, moving in small groups from different parts of the city toward a central meeting point. She did not give her last name for fear of reprisals.

“There was security on every street, every square, armored vehicles and armed men,” she said. “When we started our protest, in Tariqi Park, the Taliban took branches from the trees and beat us. But we continued our protest. They increased their security presence. Around 11 a.m. they brought out the water cannon.”

A spokesman for the provincial governor, Hamidullah Mutawakil, claimed there were only four-five protesters.

“They had no agenda, they just came here to make a film,” he said, without mentioning the violence against the women or the use of the water cannon.

There has been widespread international condemnation of the university ban, including from Muslim-majority countries such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as warnings from the United States and the G-7 group of major industrial nations that the policy will have consequences for the Taliban.

An official in the Taliban government, Minister of Higher Education Nida Mohammad Nadim, spoke about the ban for the first time on Thursday in an interview with the Afghan state television.

He said the ban was necessary to prevent the mixing of genders in universities and because he believes some subjects being taught violated the principles of Islam. He also added the ban would be in place until further notice.

Despite initially promising a more moderate rule respecting rights for women and minorities, the Taliban have widely implemented their interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, since they seized power in August 2021.

They have banned girls from middle school and high school — and now universities — and also barred women from most fields of employment. Women have also been ordered to wear head-to-toe clothing in public and have been banned from parks and gyms.

Afghan society, while largely traditional, had increasingly embraced the education of girls and women over the past two decades of a U.S.-backed government.

In the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, dozens of Afghan refugee students protested on Saturday against the ban on female higher education in their homeland and demanded the immediate reopening of campuses for women.

One of them, Bibi Haseena, read a poem depicting the grim situation for Afghan girls seeking an education. She said was unhappy about graduating outside her country when hundreds of thousands of her Afghan sisters were being deprived of an education.

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Taliban minister defends closing universities to women as global backlash grows | Taliban

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The minister of higher education in Afghanistan’s Taliban government has defended his decision to ban women from universities – a decree that triggered a global backlash and protests inside the country.

Afghanistan’s Taliban-run administration announced earlier this week it had closed universities to women partly due to female students not adhering to its interpretation of the Islamic dress code and interaction between students of different genders.

Female university students were turned away from campuses on Wednesday and the higher education ministry said their access would be suspended “until further notice”. Dozens of women gathered outside Kabul University on Thursday to protest in the first major public demonstration in the capital since the decision.

In the capital, about two dozen women marched in the streets, chanting for freedom and equality. “All or none. Don’t be afraid. We are together,” they chanted.

In video obtained by The Associated Press, one woman said Taliban security forces used violence to disperse the group.

“The girls were beaten and whipped,” she said. “They also brought military women with them, whipping the girls. We ran away, some girls were arrested. I don’t know what will happen.”

US secretary of state Antony Blinken said the Taliban were trying to sentence Afghanistan’s women “to a dark future without opportunity” by barring them from attending universities.

“Afghan women deserve better. Afghanistan deserves better,” he later tweeted. “The Taliban have just definitively set back their objective of being accepted by the international community.”

Acting higher education minister Neda Mohammad Nadeem, in his first comments on the matter, told Afghan state broadcaster RTA that several issues had prompted the decision.

“We told girls to have proper hijab but they didn’t and they wore dresses like they are going to a wedding ceremony,” he said.

“Girls were studying agriculture and engineering, but this didn’t match Afghan culture. Girls should learn, but not in areas that go against Islam and Afghan honour.”

The higher education minister said that the Taliban “asked the world not to interfere in our affairs” as he said discussions over female education were ongoing.

Blinken called on the Taliban to reverse the ban.

“We are engaged with other countries on this right now. There are going to be costs if this is not reversed,” the US secretary of state told a news conference, declining to provide specifics. “We will pursue them with allies and partners.”

US-led forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021 after 20 years of war as the western-backed former government collapsed and the militants, who enforce a strict interpretation of Islam, seized Kabul.

Since the Taliban took over, students and professors say university classes have been separated by gender and female students have adjusted their attire to meet instructions such as covering their face and wearing dark colours.

The Taliban-led administration had already drawn criticism including from foreign governments for not opening girls’ high schools at the start of the school year in March, making a U-turn on signals it would do.

In a sign of stricter enforcement of restrictions on teenage girls’ education, a letter from the education ministry on Thursday instructed all educational institutions not to allow girls above grade 6 to access their facilities.

Though high schools in most provinces have been closed, some have remained open and many tutoring centres and language classes have been open to girls. Nadeem said religious education remained open to female students.

In the capital, about 50 mainly female protesters assembled outside Kabul University while holding banners and chanted: “Education is our right, universities should be opened.”

The previous day students in Nangahar University in eastern Afghanistan also protested and male medical students walked out of exams in protest at their female classmates being excluded. Several cricket players have also publicly opposed the ban.

Large-scale protesting has become rare in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over the country, as they are often shut down forcefully by security agencies. The scattered protests that have occurred are a sign of the discontent the Taliban’s policy has generated, advocates say.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report



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Taliban Explains Why Afghan Women Have Been Banned From Universities

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Afghan universities were declared off limits to female students. (File)

Kabul:

Afghan universities were declared off limits to women because female students were not following instructions including a proper dress code, the Taliban’s minister for higher education said Thursday.

The ban announced earlier this week is the latest restriction on women’s rights in Afghanistan ordered by the Taliban since their return to power in August last year.

It has drawn global outrage, including from Muslim nations who deemed it against Islam, and from the Group of Seven industrialized democracies who said the prohibition may amount to “a crime against humanity”.

But Neda Mohammad Nadeem, the minister for higher education in the Taliban government, insisted Thursday that women students had ignored Islamic instructions — including on what to wear or being accompanied by a male relative when travelling.

“Unfortunately after the passing of 14 months, the instructions of the Ministry of Higher Education of the Islamic Emirate regarding the education of women were not implemented,” Nadeem said in an interview on state television.

“They were dressing like they were going to a wedding. Those girls who were coming to universities from home were also not following instructions on hijab.”

Nadeem also said some science subjects were not suitable for women. “Engineering, agriculture and some other courses do not match the dignity and honour of female students and also Afghan culture,” he said.

The authorities had also decided to shut those madrassas that were teaching only women students but were housed inside mosques, Nadeem said.

The ban on university education came less than three months after thousands of women students were allowed to sit university entrance exams, many aspiring for teaching and medicine as future careers.

Secondary schools for girls have been closed across most of the country for over a year — also temporarily, according to the Taliban, although they have offered a litany of excuses for why they haven’t re-opened.

Women have slowly been squeezed out of public life since the Taliban’s return, pushed out of many government jobs or paid a fraction of their former salary to stay at home.

They are also barred from travelling without a male relative and must cover up in public, and are prohibited from going to parks, fairs, gyms and public baths.

The Taliban’s treatment of women including its latest move to restrict university access for them drew fierce reaction from the G7, whose ministers demanded the ban be reversed.

“Gender persecution may amount to a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute, to which Afghanistan is a state party,” the ministers said in a statement, referring to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

“Taliban policies designed to erase women from public life will have consequences for how our countries engage with the Taliban.”

The international community has made the right to education for all women a sticking point in negotiations over aid and recognition of the Taliban regime.

Saudi Arabia too expressed “astonishment and regret” at the ban, urging the Taliban to reverse it.

But Nadeem hit back at the international community, saying it should “not interfere in Afghanistan’s internal affairs”.

– Rare protests –

Earlier Thursday a group of Afghan women staged a street protest in Kabul against the ban.

“They expelled women from universities. Oh, the respected people, support, support. Rights for everyone or no one!” chanted the protesters as they rallied in a Kabul neighbourhood, footage obtained by AFP showed.

A protester at the rally told AFP “some of the girls” had been arrested by women police officers. Two were later released and two remained in custody, she added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Women-led protests have become increasingly rare in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over the country in August 2021, particularly after the detention of core activists at the start of this year.

Participants risk arrest, violence and stigma from their families for taking part.

Despite promising a softer rule when they seized power, the Taliban have ratcheted up restrictions on all aspects of women’s lives.

After their takeover, universities were forced to implement new rules including gender-segregated classrooms and entrances, while women were only permitted to be taught by professors of the same sex, or old men.

The Taliban adhere to an austere version of Islam, with the movement’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and his inner circle of clerics against modern education, especially for girls and women, some Taliban officials say.

In the 20 years between the Taliban’s two reigns, girls were allowed to go to school and women were able to seek employment in all sectors, though the country remained socially conservative.

The authorities have also returned to public floggings of men and women in recent weeks, as they implement an extreme interpretation of Islamic sharia law.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Afghanistan’s female students voice devastation after being banned from universities

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Kabul, Afghanistan
CNN
 — 

The 21-year-old student had been studying hard for weeks as she prepared for the final exams of her first year of university. She was almost done, with just two exams left, when she heard the news: the Taliban government was suspending university education for all female students in Afghanistan.

“I did not stop and kept studying for the exam,” she told CNN on Wednesday. “I went to the university in the morning anyway.”

But it was no use. She arrived to find armed Taliban guards at the gates of her campus in Kabul, the Afghan capital, turning away every female student who tried to enter.

“It was a terrible scene,” she said. “Most of the girls, including myself, were crying and asking them to let us go in … If you lose all your rights and you can’t do anything about it, how would you feel?”

CNN is not naming the student for safety reasons.

The Taliban’s decision on Tuesday was just the latest step in its brutal crackdown on the freedoms of Afghan women, following its takeover of the country in August 2021.

Though the insurgent group has repeatedly claimed that it would protect the rights of girls and women, it has in fact done the opposite, stripping away the hard-won freedoms they have fought tirelessly for over the last two decades.

Some of its most striking restrictions have been around education, with girls barred from returning to secondary schools in March. The move devastated many students and their families, who described to CNN their dashed dreams of becoming doctors, teachers or engineers.

To the Kabul student, the loss of her education was an even bigger shock than the bomb attacks and violence she has previously witnessed.

“I always thought that we could overcome our sorrow and fear by getting educated,” she said. “However, this (time) is different. It is just unacceptable and unbelievable.”

The news was met with widespread condemnation and dismay, with many world leaders – and prominent Afghan figures – urging the Taliban to reverse its decision.

In a statement on Twitter, former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani – who fled Kabul when the Taliban seized power – called the group illegitimate rulers holding “the entire population hostage.”

“The current problem of women’s education and work in the country is very serious, sad, and the most obvious and cruel example of gender apartheid in the 21st century,” Ghani wrote. “I have said it again and again that if one girl becomes literate, she changes five future generations, and if one girl remains illiterate, she causes the destruction of five future generations.”

He praised those in Afghanistan protesting the Taliban’s decision, calling them “pioneers.”

Another former Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, also expressed “deep regret” over the suspension. The country’s “development, population, and self-sufficiency depend on the education and training of every child, girl, and boy of this land,” he wrote.

Other foreign officials and leaders issued similar statements, including the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price, and US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karen Decker.

The foreign ministries of France, Germany, Pakistan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia criticized the decision as well.

“Preventing half of the population from contributing meaningfully to society and the economy will have a devastating impact on the whole country,” said the UN mission in Afghanistan in a statement.

“Education is a basic human right,” it added. “Excluding women and girls from secondary and tertiary education not only denies them this right, it denies Afghan society as a whole the benefit of the contributions that women and girls have to offer. It denies all of Afghanistan a future.”

Female students in Afghanistan say their futures now lie in limbo, with no clarity on what will become of their education.

“I am still hopeful that things would get back to normal, but I don’t know how long it will take,” said the Kabul student. “Now many girls, including me, are just thinking (about) what is next, what can we do to get out of this situation.”

“I am not quitting,” she added, saying she would consider going “somewhere else” if Afghanistan continued banning female students.

Another 21-year-old, Maryam, is intimately familiar with the dangers of pursuing education as a woman. As a high school student, she’d been in the vicinity of an attack on Kabul University several years ago, and remembers being evacuated “while bullets were flying over our heads.”

Then in September, she barely survived a suicide attack at the Kaaj education center in Kabul, which killed at least 25 people, most of whom are believed to be young women. The attack sparked public outrage and horror, with dozens of women taking to the streets of Kabul afterward in protest.

Maryam, who is being identified by one name for her security, missed the blast by just seconds. When she ran back into her classroom, she was met with the scattered bodies of her friends.

Each brush with death cemented her determination not only to pursue her own ambitions – but the “dreams of all those best friends of mine who died before my eyes,” she said.

Though she was accepted into a bachelors program weeks after the September bombing, she decided to defer her university plans for a year, instead returning to rebuild the destroyed education center from scratch. She wanted to encourage other girls to continue their educations, she said.

Now, those dreams have been shattered by Tuesday’s announcement.

“I am just lost. I don’t know what to do and what to say,” she told CNN. “Since last night, I have been imagining every friend of mine who lost their lives in the Kaaj attack. What was their sacrifice for?”

“We need to get education; we have given a lot of sacrifice for it. It is our only hope for a better future.”

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5 things to know for December 21: Ukraine, Trump’s taxes, Weather, Title 42, Taliban

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CNN
 — 

Today is the first official day of winter, hence the bitter cold sweeping across most of the US. In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice marks the shortest day of the year, when the Earth is at its furthest tilt away from the sun. Depending on how close you are to the North Pole, this also means daylight will soon decrease dramatically for some time.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will make a dramatic visit to Washington today, using his first trip outside his homeland since the onset of Russia’s invasion to rally US support for his country’s defense. He will meet with President Joe Biden, who is set to announce he is sending nearly $2 billion in additional security assistance to Ukraine, including a sophisticated new air defense system. Over the course of the 10-month invasion, Zelensky has remained steadfast in Ukraine while appealing to nations around the world for support. This makes it even more of a remarkable moment as he joins a top international ally today to call for sustained military and economic assistance.

The Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee said Tuesday it will release former President Donald Trump’s tax returns within days, and asserted that the IRS failed to properly audit the former president’s taxes while he was in office. The committee also released a report Tuesday detailing six years’ worth of the former president’s returns, including claims of massive annual losses that significantly reduced his tax burden. The release marks the conclusion of a nearly four-year legal battle House Democrats waged against the former president after they took control of the House in 2019. The pursuit was also tied in part to long-held suspicions about Trump’s finances after he declined to release his tax returns while running for president in 2016 or once in office.

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A moving sidewalk

Water pouches were slid under cobblestones in the city of Bourges, France, to give this art exhibit motion. (Click here to view.)

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World

Taliban suspend university education for women in Afghanistan

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CNN
 — 

The Taliban government has suspended university education for all female students in Afghanistan, the latest step in its brutal clampdown on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women.

A spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education confirmed the suspension to CNN on Tuesday. A letter published by the education ministry said the decision was made in a cabinet meeting and the order will go into effect immediately.

Girls were barred from returning to secondary schools in March, after the Taliban ordered schools for girls to shut just hours after they were due to reopen following months long closures imposed after the Taliban takeover in August 2021.

Human Rights Watch criticized the ban on Tuesday, calling it a “shameful decision that violates the right to education for women and girls in Afghanistan.”

“The Taliban are making it clear every day that they don’t respect the fundamental rights of Afghans, especially women,” the rights watchdog said in a statement.

The US condemns “the Taliban’s indefensible decision to ban women from universities,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said during a Tuesday briefing.

The Taliban’s recent decision, he said, will “have significant consequences for the Taliban and will further alienate the Taliban from the international community and deny them the legitimacy they desire.”

The March closure of secondary schools to girls had a “significant impact” on US engagement with Taliban representatives, Price added.

“With the implementation of this decree, half of the Afghan population will soon be unable to access education beyond primary school,” he said.

US Ambassador Robert Wood, the alternate representative for special political affairs, earlier reiterated those criticisms, telling a United Nations’ Security Council briefing that the “Taliban cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all Afghans, especially the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls.”

The Taliban, which ruled over Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when the US-led invasion forced the group from power, have historically treated women as second-class citizens, subjecting them to violence, forced marriages and a near-invisible presence in the country.

After seizing power in Afghanistan last year, the Taliban attempted to project a more moderate image to gain international support.

But while it has has made numerous promises to the international community that it would protect the rights of women and girls, the Taliban has been doing the opposite, systematically clamping down on their rights and freedoms.

Women in Afghanistan can no longer work in most sectors, require a male guardian for long-distance travel and have been ordered to cover their faces in public.

They have also imposed limits on girls’ education, banning women from certain workplaces as they stripped away rights they had fought tirelessly for over the last two decades.

In November, Afghan women prevented from entering amusement parks in Kabul as the government announced restrictions on women being able to access public parks, Reuters reports.

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