Taliban ban women from working for domestic, foreign NGOs
ABUL, 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. They also separately banned women from attending religious classes at the mosques in the capital of Kabul.
Taliban ban women from working for domestic, foreign NGOs
© Provided by The Canadian Press
The bans are the latest restrictive moves by Afghanistan's new rulers against women's rights and freedoms, coming 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 international outrage.
The NGO order came in a letter from Economy Minister Qari Din Mohammed Hanif, which said that any organization 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 move 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.
The United Nations condemned the NGO order, and said it will seek to meet with the Taliban leadership to get some clarity.
“Taking away the free will of women to choose their own fate, disempowering and excluding them systematically from all aspects of public and political life takes the country backward, jeopardizing efforts for any meaningful peace or stability in the country,” a U.N. statement said.
Related video: Taliban's higher education minister defends ban on women from universities (Euronews)
Duration 1:11
View on Watch
More videos
The bans are the latest restrictive moves by Afghanistan's new rulers against women's rights and freedoms, coming 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 international outrage.
The NGO order came in a letter from Economy Minister Qari Din Mohammed Hanif, which said that any organization 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 move 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.
The United Nations condemned the NGO order, and said it will seek to meet with the Taliban leadership to get some clarity.
“Taking away the free will of women to choose their own fate, disempowering and excluding them systematically from all aspects of public and political life takes the country backward, jeopardizing efforts for any meaningful peace or stability in the country,” a U.N. statement said.
Related video: Taliban's higher education minister defends ban on women from universities (Euronews)
Duration 1:11
View on Watch
More videos
Afghanistan: Taliban's move of ban over women's education unites rest of Muslim world
5:30
Sky NewsTaliban defends university ban for women
0:50
WIONAfghanistan: Taliban divided over ban on women's education; US
5:06
Calls on Taliban to reverse ban
In another edict, a spokesman for the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs, Fazil
Mohammad Hussaini, said late Saturday that “adult girls" are barred from attending Islamic classes in mosques in Kabul, although they could still go to standalone madrassas, or religious schools.
He gave no further details, and did not elaborate on the ages affected with the ban or how it would be enforced. It was also not explained why the measure only applies to Kabul mosques.
Earlier on 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.
Riazat Butt, The Associated Press
5:30
Sky NewsTaliban defends university ban for women
0:50
WIONAfghanistan: Taliban divided over ban on women's education; US
5:06
Calls on Taliban to reverse ban
In another edict, a spokesman for the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs, Fazil
Mohammad Hussaini, said late Saturday that “adult girls" are barred from attending Islamic classes in mosques in Kabul, although they could still go to standalone madrassas, or religious schools.
He gave no further details, and did not elaborate on the ages affected with the ban or how it would be enforced. It was also not explained why the measure only applies to Kabul mosques.
Earlier on 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.
Riazat Butt, The Associated Press
Activist Malala Yousafzai on Taliban education ban
Story by Analisa Novak • Yesterday -CBSNEWS
Nobel Prize laureate and activist Malala Yousafzai told "CBS Mornings" that she is not shocked that the Taliban banned women and girls from attending universities and from getting higher education in Afghanistan.
She said that ever since the Taliban captured power over 15 months ago, conditions for women are getting worse and years of change are being erased in front of the world's eyes.
"It was their activism that made it possible for them to get access to education, to get jobs, to be part of the parliament, to be part of everyday public life. And suddenly that public life is taken from them. That women are erased from public life," Yousafzai said.
Yousafzai was shot in the head in Pakistan in 2012, when she was 15, after being targeted by the Taliban for speaking out on education for young women. She became the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, at 17, for her work in education advocacy.
The hardline religious Taliban ruled over Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, before U.S.-led armed forces removed the group from power, before the group retook the country following the U.S. withdrawl in May 2021. They have since deprived girls of their fundamental rights by banning secondary education for grades six and above.
Education activist Malala Yousafzai on the Taliban banning women from universities
Duration 4:23
View on Watch
More videos
WIONAfghanistan: Taliban's move of ban over women's education unites rest of Muslim world
5:30
DailymotionTaliban’s ban on university education for women is ‘disaster’: Ex-Afghan Wheelchair athlete
3:11
"They're failing in the cultural justification, the religious justification, as well. And it's really about the future of the Afghan people. It's up to the Afghan people to decide how they want to live their life. It's not up to men to decide their futures for them," said Yousafzai.
In a statement Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the U.S. "condemns in the strongest terms" the Taliban's decision to ban women and girls from attending universities in Afghanistan.
Yousafzai is calling on more world leaders to address the issue and to be allies for Afghan women who have been leading mass protests for months.
"The truth of protests will be when leaders respond and hear their call to action," she said.
Story by Analisa Novak • Yesterday -CBSNEWS
Nobel Prize laureate and activist Malala Yousafzai told "CBS Mornings" that she is not shocked that the Taliban banned women and girls from attending universities and from getting higher education in Afghanistan.
She said that ever since the Taliban captured power over 15 months ago, conditions for women are getting worse and years of change are being erased in front of the world's eyes.
"It was their activism that made it possible for them to get access to education, to get jobs, to be part of the parliament, to be part of everyday public life. And suddenly that public life is taken from them. That women are erased from public life," Yousafzai said.
Yousafzai was shot in the head in Pakistan in 2012, when she was 15, after being targeted by the Taliban for speaking out on education for young women. She became the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, at 17, for her work in education advocacy.
The hardline religious Taliban ruled over Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, before U.S.-led armed forces removed the group from power, before the group retook the country following the U.S. withdrawl in May 2021. They have since deprived girls of their fundamental rights by banning secondary education for grades six and above.
Education activist Malala Yousafzai on the Taliban banning women from universities
Duration 4:23
View on Watch
More videos
WIONAfghanistan: Taliban's move of ban over women's education unites rest of Muslim world
5:30
DailymotionTaliban’s ban on university education for women is ‘disaster’: Ex-Afghan Wheelchair athlete
3:11
"They're failing in the cultural justification, the religious justification, as well. And it's really about the future of the Afghan people. It's up to the Afghan people to decide how they want to live their life. It's not up to men to decide their futures for them," said Yousafzai.
In a statement Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the U.S. "condemns in the strongest terms" the Taliban's decision to ban women and girls from attending universities in Afghanistan.
Yousafzai is calling on more world leaders to address the issue and to be allies for Afghan women who have been leading mass protests for months.
"The truth of protests will be when leaders respond and hear their call to action," she said.
Afghan Men Show Support For Women After Taliban College Ban
Eltaf Najafizada
Thu, December 22, 2022
(Bloomberg) -- More than a dozen male university teachers in Afghanistan have resigned and several male students walked out of their classrooms in support of female students who were forced out of higher education following a Taliban decree.
“I don’t wish to continue working somewhere where there is an organized discrimination against innocent and talented girls of this country by those in power,” Obaidullah Wardak, a Kabul University professor who quit in protest Wednesday, said on Twitter, calling the the ban on women education “unjust and immoral.”
Some women and girls also took to the streets in the capital Kabul on Thursday, chanting “education for all.” Local media reported Taliban soldiers hit the protesters with sticks and whips, while detaining five of them along with two journalists covering the event. Elsewhere, a social media post by Afghan Peace Watch showed several male students walking out of their classes in protest, while video footage showed girls weeping inside a class when hearing about the ban from a teacher.
The solidarity shown by some Afghan men draws parallels with neighboring Iran, where months of protests continue to simmer following the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody in September after she was arrested for allegedly flouting Islamic dress codes by the country’s so-called morality police. The outcry, largely led by girls and women, has garnered support from thousands of men.
The Taliban’s Minister of Higher Education, Neda Mohammad Nadeem – one of its most conservative members – late Tuesday announced the ban on women attending university. Members of the militant group wasted no time in enforcing the decree. At one point on Wednesday a female student reported that Taliban members pointed guns at them to prevent their entry into a Kabul campus.
Late Thursday, Nadeem justified the decree in an interview with a Taliban-controlled TV channel. He cited the lack of male escorts for female students who leave remote towns for other provinces to attend universities and the lack of segregation of male and female students in classrooms as the main reasons for the ban.
“High-level work is ongoing to address these problems that meet Islamic demands,” Nadeem said.
The decision to bar women from universities sparked outrage in the country and across the world. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the decision would stymie the Taliban’s efforts to gain recognition and support at a time when the country is suffering from severe poverty. The US Charge D’affaires to Afghanistan, Karen Decker, backed the protests and resignations for showing solidarity with women and urged the ruling militant group to reverse their decision.
Even Pakistan, which has close ties to the militant group, and Qatar — the host of a Talibal political office in Doha and facilitator of peace talks between the group and the US — expressed disappointment and urged the group to reconsider its decision.
The abrupt decree prompted several Afghan social media handles to post a six-month-old Piers Morgan interview with Suhail Shaheen, who heads the Taliban’s political office in Doha, where he states that his own daughters attends school.
They are “observing hijab” so they haven’t been denied education, Shaheen said at the time. He didn’t respond to a text message from Bloomberg News seeking comment.
Eltaf Najafizada
Thu, December 22, 2022
(Bloomberg) -- More than a dozen male university teachers in Afghanistan have resigned and several male students walked out of their classrooms in support of female students who were forced out of higher education following a Taliban decree.
“I don’t wish to continue working somewhere where there is an organized discrimination against innocent and talented girls of this country by those in power,” Obaidullah Wardak, a Kabul University professor who quit in protest Wednesday, said on Twitter, calling the the ban on women education “unjust and immoral.”
Some women and girls also took to the streets in the capital Kabul on Thursday, chanting “education for all.” Local media reported Taliban soldiers hit the protesters with sticks and whips, while detaining five of them along with two journalists covering the event. Elsewhere, a social media post by Afghan Peace Watch showed several male students walking out of their classes in protest, while video footage showed girls weeping inside a class when hearing about the ban from a teacher.
The solidarity shown by some Afghan men draws parallels with neighboring Iran, where months of protests continue to simmer following the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody in September after she was arrested for allegedly flouting Islamic dress codes by the country’s so-called morality police. The outcry, largely led by girls and women, has garnered support from thousands of men.
The Taliban’s Minister of Higher Education, Neda Mohammad Nadeem – one of its most conservative members – late Tuesday announced the ban on women attending university. Members of the militant group wasted no time in enforcing the decree. At one point on Wednesday a female student reported that Taliban members pointed guns at them to prevent their entry into a Kabul campus.
Late Thursday, Nadeem justified the decree in an interview with a Taliban-controlled TV channel. He cited the lack of male escorts for female students who leave remote towns for other provinces to attend universities and the lack of segregation of male and female students in classrooms as the main reasons for the ban.
“High-level work is ongoing to address these problems that meet Islamic demands,” Nadeem said.
The decision to bar women from universities sparked outrage in the country and across the world. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the decision would stymie the Taliban’s efforts to gain recognition and support at a time when the country is suffering from severe poverty. The US Charge D’affaires to Afghanistan, Karen Decker, backed the protests and resignations for showing solidarity with women and urged the ruling militant group to reverse their decision.
Even Pakistan, which has close ties to the militant group, and Qatar — the host of a Talibal political office in Doha and facilitator of peace talks between the group and the US — expressed disappointment and urged the group to reconsider its decision.
The abrupt decree prompted several Afghan social media handles to post a six-month-old Piers Morgan interview with Suhail Shaheen, who heads the Taliban’s political office in Doha, where he states that his own daughters attends school.
They are “observing hijab” so they haven’t been denied education, Shaheen said at the time. He didn’t respond to a text message from Bloomberg News seeking comment.
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