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Taliban safety forces have used violence and arrested a number of individuals as they dispersed a protest by Afghan girls towards a ruling that bans feminine college students from universities.
Afghanistan’s Taliban introduced the choice to forbid girls from universities late on December 20 in a letter from the Islamist group’s training ministry to larger training establishments, drawing instant condemnation from the worldwide group and the United Nations.
A bunch of some 50 girls wearing hijabs, some carrying masks, gathered within the capital, Kabul, on December 22 for a peaceable protest march towards the transfer, chanting slogans towards the ban, however had been attacked and dispersed by Taliban safety forces, individuals and witnesses informed RFE/RL.
The individuals supposed to assemble outdoors Kabul College, Afghanistan’s largest and most prestigious larger training establishment, however switched to a unique location after a lot of safety forces members had been deployed there.
One of many girls who attended the march, Basira, informed RFE/RL that safety forces beat a number of the individuals and took them away, whereas others managed to flee. Plenty of journalists protecting the protest have been reportedly detained, too.
“Sadly, the Taliban turned our protest into violence as soon as once more,” she informed RFE/RL.
She stated she didn’t know the entire variety of girls who had been arrested, however stated one lady she is aware of, Zahra Mandaj, was arrested with 4 others. Basira stated she and others averted arrest by working into homes whose occupants had opened their doorways.
One other participant, Shahla Arefi, informed RFE/RL that plainclothes feminine members of the safety forces had infiltrated the march and immobilized some protesters who tried to run when armed Taliban males appeared.
Taliban authorities haven’t commented on the incident, however the Taliban-led authorities’s minister of upper training defended the choice to ban girls from universities.
Nida Mohammad Nadim stated in an interview with Afghan tv that the ban was needed to stop the blending of genders at universities and since he believes some topics being taught violated the rules of Islam.
He additionally stated feminine college students had ignored Islamic directions, together with on what to put on, and had did not be accompanied by a male family member when touring.
“They had been dressing like they had been going to a marriage. These ladies who had been coming to universities from residence had been additionally not following directions on hijab,” he stated.
The ban is in place till additional discover, he added.
Nadim additionally pushed again towards worldwide condemnation of the ban and stated foreigners ought to cease interfering in Afghanistan’s inside affairs.
On December 22, Turkey and Saudi Arabia turned the newest Muslim-majority international locations to blast the Taliban authorities’ transfer.
Turkish International Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, talking at a information convention along with his Yemeni counterpart, stated that the ban was “neither Islamic nor humane” and referred to as on the Taliban to reverse the transfer.
The International Ministry of Saudi Arabia, a rustic that till not too long ago had additionally enforced sweeping restrictions on girls’s rights however has now begun to permit them extra liberty, voiced “astonishment and remorse” on the Taliban’s determination.
The ministry stated the transfer was “astonishing in all Islamic international locations.”
On December 21, the United Nations Help Mission in Afghanistan urged the Taliban authorities to right away revoke the choice.
Qatar, which has maintained contact with the Taliban authorities, additionally condemned the choice.
A press release on December 22 by German International Minister Annalena Baerbock on behalf of the Group of Seven (G7) superior economies stated gender persecution may quantity to a criminal offense towards humanity.
The G7 strongly condemned the ban on girls from universities, which taken with different measures by the Taliban would appear to be a scientific coverage, stated Baerbock, who chaired a digital overseas ministers’ assembly on December 22.
“Gender persecution could quantity to a criminal offense towards humanity below the Rome Statute, to which Afghanistan is a state occasion,” the overseas ministers stated in an announcement.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated the Taliban was attempting to condemn Afghanistan’s girls “to a darkish future with out alternative” by banning them from attending universities.
Inside Afghanistan, the place cricket is a massively standard sport, a number of cricketers have additionally condemned the transfer, whereas some male college students on the medical faculty of Nangarhar College, in jap Afghanistan, refused to take exams on December 21 in solidarity with their banned feminine colleagues.
In neighboring Pakistan, college students at Peshawar College within the northwest of the nation staged a peaceable demonstration in help of Afghan ladies’ proper to larger training, urging the Taliban to reverse the ban.
With reporting by AP and AFP
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