TEHRAN – A foreign ministry official has expressed Iran’s readiness to provide university education to Afghan women after the Taliban barred female students from attending private and public universities across Afghanistan.
The director general of the West Asia department at Iran’s ministry of foreign affairs said in a tweet that he has held talks with the caretaker of Afghanistan’s embassy in Tehran, Abdul Qayyum Soleimani, about the Taliban’s announcement that Afghan women could no longer attend university classes.
Rasoul Mousavi said he has voiced Iran’s readiness to help resolve the problem in various ways, such as by providing online university courses and allowing Afghan women to use the infrastructure available in Iran.
In a statement on Thursday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Tehran regrets obstacles being put in the way of university education for girls and women in Afghanistan.
He said Iran hopes that the people in charge in Afghanistan would

immediately remove the obstacles and allow for the resumption of education for girls at schools and universities.
The Taliban-run higher education ministry has announced that female students would not be allowed access to the country’s universities until further notice.
“You all are informed to immediately implement the mentioned order of suspending the education of females until further notice,” said a letter issued to all government and private universities.