In the western Afghan city of Herat, dozens of women protested on Saturday against their ban from the country’s universities. With slogans like “Education is our right,” they took to the streets in small groups, a demonstrator told the German Press Agency.
The women gathered in front of the provincial governor’s office. The Taliban then broke up the protests with water cannons and batons, it said. Videos on social networks showed a fire engine spraying the demonstrators with a liquid.
The Taliban showed an increased military presence in the capital Kabul on Saturday. There, too, dozens of women demonstrated against the recently imposed university ban on Thursday (photo). At least one of the women has reportedly been missing since then.
Taliban government said to be split on ban
On Tuesday, the Taliban banned women from all universities in Afghanistan with immediate effect. Since taking power in August 2021, the Islamists have massively restricted women’s rights. Girls and women are largely excluded from public life. In the past, women who protested for their rights were repeatedly detained, sometimes for several weeks.
According to a media report, the Taliban government is divided over the university ban. Interior Minister Sirajuddin Hakkani and Defense Minister Mullah Yakub Mujahid are said to have discussed reopening universities to women, the usually well-informed Afghan broadcaster Tolonews reported on Friday, citing an unnamed source in the interior ministry.
The two Taliban ministers are said to travel to the southern province of Kandahar for talks with Taliban leader Haibatullah Achundsada after the decision was widely criticized.
The Taliban Minister for Higher Education, Sheikh Neda Mohammed Nadim, defended the university ban for women in an interview on state television on Thursday. The hardliner justified the drastic step with contradictions to the Islamic legal concept of the Taliban.
These included, for example, that female students did not observe the Islamic dress code or came to the universities from the provinces without a male companion. (dpa)
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