In the weeks since the Taliban’s December 2022 decision to ban women from university, Afghans have shown they won’t hold their grudges. Courageous female students have launched a campaign of resistance – risking beatings, detention or worse – and their male counterparts (and many professors) have shown solidarity by walking out of exams.
As the Taliban try to destroy the rights of girls and women, they may not be able to achieve the final “victory”. Afghan girls and women had their right to an education in the years before the Taliban returned to power in 2021, and now no amount of intimidation or prison sentences will silence them. He has experienced what is free, and he will not accept the alternative.
The Taliban have warned that if they exclude women from the work carried out by NGOs that provide food and health, the organization will have no choice but to leave the country – a message reinforced this week by UN deputy secretary general Amina Mohammed.
But another way to effect change is to threaten the Taliban regime with the force of international law. The Taliban’s brutal and inhumane treatment of women and girls needs to be investigated by an international court. The regime is in clear violation of internationally agreed conventions on the rights of children and women.
No other country in the world prohibits women and girls from receiving education, and no other country has such a state-led form of gender-based violence.
I have spoken to many Afghan students in my capacity as the UN’s special envoy for global education, and words cannot capture the frustration they feel. The world’s poorest and most vulnerable children know that they now bear the heaviest burden in the global fight against one of the greatest injustices – the denial of girls’ and women’s rights.
Afghan girls have been denied access to schools, barred from public spaces, prevented from traveling without a male escort, and forced to wear burqas that cover them from head to toe.
The spread of the university has been going on for some time. After the Taliban takeover in 2021, the university introduced gender-segregated classrooms and entrances and declared that female students could only be taught by female professors or parents.
Then, in October 2022, the Taliban issued sweeping restrictions on the subjects women were allowed to study. Veterinary science, engineering, economics, journalism, and agriculture are all considered off-limits.
But the authorities are sending mixed signals, suggesting that the regime is not united on the new limits. For example, when thousands of girls and women were allowed to sit for the university entrance exam three months ago, the decision was immediately followed by one block from matriculating. This may reflect the tension between religious leaders and the education ministry who prefer to see girls in the classroom rather than sitting at home.
The division in the regime is also reflected in the unevenness of policy implementation. In some parts of the country, education continues on the ground or in home schools, with little resistance from the authorities, and in other areas, girls are still allowed to attend regular schools, in open defiance of the Taliban’s injunctions. One can also infer internal fissures from the ban on women NGO workers, a policy that the public health minister claims does not apply to the health sector.
These examples show that rulers do not legislate from a position of strength. Instead, they act out of fear of women’s empowerment. After all, there is no other credible justification for such a policy. Islam encourages education, and all neighboring Afghanistan offer schools for girls. They know that the education of girls is not only in line with the teachings of Islam but also important for economic well-being.
In addition, Afghanistan itself has a history of benefiting from girls’ education. The country’s past shows that if the Taliban continue down the path of oppression, Afghans will have only half the doctors, nurses, and teachers they need.
And if half of Afghanistan’s human capital has been destroyed, the economy, which needs to be rebuilt, will remain one of the worst performers in the world.
During my many visits before 2021 to Afghan schools where girls are taught, I saw firsthand that there is a widespread passion for universal education, in both rural and urban areas. Taliban bans go a long way in confronting basic human aspirations. People everywhere want more freedom, not less.
The Taliban’s policies on the education of girls and women do not reflect true Afghanistan or true Islam. It is vital that the international community, and especially the Muslim world, come together to support young Afghan women as they stand up for their rights. — © Project Syndicate
Gordon Brown, former British prime minister, chairs the high-level steering group Education Cannot Wait. Yasmine Sherif is the director of Education Cannot Wait.