Mashal (35) resigned on the spot – promising to fight to the death

Professor Ismail Mashal tells AFP that he will fight on, no matter what the cost.

Mashal is a professor of journalism and teaches at three universities in Afghanistan. He says he felt powerless when the Taliban introduced a ban on women getting an education.

– I raise my voice and stand side by side with my sisters. My protest continues, even if it could cost me my life, he tells AFP.

Mashal quit his job and tore up his own diplomas in protest on live television on Tuesday this week.

The case has received a lot of attention in Afghanistan and the clip has gone viral on social media.

– As a man and a teacher, I can no longer do anything for them, and I felt that my diplomas had become worthless. So I tore them to pieces, he explains.

Internal disagreement

The protest has caused several people to criticize the Taliban’s latest tightening of women’s rights. Also among the Taliban’s supporters.

– In a society where books and pens are torn from the hands of mothers and sisters, more crime, poverty and humiliation will only grow, says Mashal.

The Taliban claim they are banning women’s right to education because female students do not follow the strict Islamic dress code, but Mashal denies this.

– They asked us to introduce compulsory headgear for women and we did. They asked us to divide classes by gender, and we did. The Taliban have not given us any logical reason for the ban, he says.

The ban on proper education affects 20 million Afghan girls and women.

– Education is a God-given right. The ban has no basis in Sharia. Women’s right to education comes from God, from the Koran and the prophet Mohammed. So why should we look down on women, he says.

The Taliban promised a milder regime when they took power after the West pulled out last August. In talks with the Norwegian authorities, among others, they promised to ensure girls’ schooling, but they have never shown signs of keeping their promises.

Instead, girls and women have been increasingly marginalized in Afghan society.

Dreams crushed

Youth schools have been closed to girls for over a year. Many women have lost their jobs in public institutions or had their wages reduced in order to stay at home.

– It would have been better if they beheaded us in the square, says Marwa from Kabul. She is furious and disappointed to have her dream dashed.

She was to become the first woman in the family to obtain a higher education. Now she has to stay at home and watch her brother go to university without her.

– It breaks my heart that she doesn’t get the opportunity, says Marwa’s mother, Zenaib to AFP.

– Going backwards

Women have also been denied access to parks, gyms and public baths. Nor can they travel without permission from a close male relative.

– This is going backwards, says Mashal. His wife lost her job as a teacher and he worries about his sixth grade daughter. From next year, she is not entitled to further schooling.

– I don’t know how to tell her that she can no longer go to school. What has she done to deserve it?, he asks.

Last week, the Taliban ordered female aid workers to stay at home, but they backtracked after the organizations threatened to pull out of the country.