KABUL (Pajhwok): G7 foreign ministers on Thursday asked the Taliban authorities to reverse the ban on women attending university, saying the move may amount to “a crime against humanity.”
“Taliban policies designed to erase women from public life will have consequences for how our countries engage with the Taliban,” the ministers of the club of rich nations said in a statement, after holding virtual talks.
However, Higher Education Minister Nida Mohammad Nadeem on Thursday defended his decision to ban women from universities, a decree that had triggered a global backlash.
Discussing the matter for the first time in public, Nadeem said the ban issued earlier this week was necessary to prevent the mixing of genders in universities and because he believes some subjects being taught violated the principles of Islam. He said the ban was in place until further notice.
The caretaker government on Wednesday said women’s higher education is suspended until further notice according to a decision of the cabinet.
Since March, girls have been barred from attending secondary schools.
Both decisions should be reversed “without delay”, the G7 ministers said.
“Gender persecution may amount to a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute, to which Afghanistan is a state party,” they said, in a reference to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
“The G7 members stand with all Afghans in their demand to exercise their human rights consistent with Afghanistan’s obligations under international law,” they added.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, whose country holds the G7 rotating presidency, called the university ban another step “towards the Stone Age”.
“Women and girls in Afghanistan aren’t just not allowed in universities anymore, they aren’t allowed in parks, they aren’t allowed to step outside the door unveiled, they aren’t allowed to learn,” she told a Berlin press conference.
“The Taliban are taking away everything that makes a life for women and girls in Afghanistan. And living is more than just surviving,” she said.
The G7 consists of Britain, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Japan and the United States.
In an interview with Afghan television, Nadeem pushed back against the widespread international condemnation, including from Muslim-majority countries such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, saying foreigners should stop interfering in Afghanistan’s internal affairs.
Other reasons he gave for the university ban were women’s failure to observe a dress code and the study of certain subjects and courses.
“We told girls to have proper hijab but they didn’t and they wore dresses like they are going to a wedding ceremony,” he said. “Girls were studying agriculture and engineering, but this didn’t match Afghan culture. Girls should learn, but not in areas that go against Islam and Afghan honor.”
He added that work was underway to fix these issues and universities would reopen for women once they were resolved.
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