ANKARA (AP/Al Jazeera) – Turkey and Saudi Arabia are the latest countries to strongly condemned the Taliban’s nationwide ban on women attending private and public universities.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday that the ban was “neither Islamic nor humane”.
Speaking at a joint news conference, Cavusoglu urged the Taliban to reverse the decision.
“What harm is there in women’s education? What harm does it do to Afghanistan?” Cavusoglu said. “Is there an Islamic explanation? On the contrary, our religion, Islam, is not against education; on the contrary, it encourages education and science.”
The Saudi foreign ministry expressed “astonishment and regret” at Afghan women being denied a university education. In a statement late on Wednesday, the ministry said the decision was “astonishing in all Islamic countries”.
They became the latest Muslim-majority countries to do so after Qatar, which has served as a mediator between the United States and the Taliban, criticized the decision.
There has also been domestic opposition to the ban, with a dozen women staging a protest in the streets of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, on Thursday, chanting for freedom and equality. “All or none. Don’t be afraid. We are together,” they chanted.
Meanwhile, the minister of higher education in the Taliban government on Thursday defended his decision to ban women from universities.
Discussing the matter for the first time in public, Nida Mohammad Nadim 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.
In an interview with Afghan television, Nadim pushed back against the widespread international condemnation, including from Muslim-majority countries such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar. Nadim said that foreigners should stop interfering in Afghanistan’s internal affairs.
Earlier on Thursday, the foreign ministers of the G-7 group of states urged the Taliban to rescind the ban, warning that “gender persecution may amount to a crime against humanity.” The ministers warned after a virtual meeting that “Taliban policies designed to erase women from public life will have consequences for how our countries engage with the Taliban.” The G-7 group includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.