(Istanbul) The ban on Afghan women from going to university, decided by the Taliban regime, is a decision “neither Muslim nor humane”, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday.
“This prohibition is neither Muslim nor humane. We reject this ban, we don’t believe it is fair. Let’s hope, God willing, that they will give up on this decision,” the minister said at a press conference.
“How does the education of women hurt humanity? asked Mr. Cavusoglu.
Turkey, whose majority population is Muslim, is the only NATO member country to have kept an open embassy in Kabul since the Taliban came to power in August 2021.
Iran, which borders Turkey and Afghanistan, also regretted “learning that Afghan girls and women face obstacles to study in universities”, said the spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. foreigners, Nasser Kanani, in a press release.
Tehran hopes Afghan officials “will quickly pave the way for the resumption of girls’ education at all levels”, he added.
Iran has high levels of female education, but the country is currently being heavily criticized by Western countries for its violent crackdown on protests that have rocked the Islamic Republic since September. Triggered by the death of a young Iranian Kurd arrested by the morality police, they turned into a protest movement against the regime.
The ban on higher education in Afghanistan comes less than three months after thousands of young women took university entrance exams.
Universities are currently on winter vacation and are expected to reopen in March.
Most teenage girls across the country have already been banned from secondary education, severely limiting university admission.
The United States condemned “in the strongest terms” the Taliban’s decision, which Paris found “deeply shocking”, while Britain castigated a “serious step backwards”.