Afghani women have gathered outside the Kabul University to protest the Taliban’s new policy barring female students from universities.
The country’s higher education minister announced the regression on Tuesday, saying it would take immediate effect.
According to witnesses, about 50 mainly female protestors assembled while holding banners and chanted: “Education is our right, universities should be opened.”
“Today we come out on the streets of Kabul to raise our voices against the closure of the girls’ universities,” protesters from the Afghanistan Women’s Unity and Solidarity group said.
The previous day students in Nangahar University in eastern Afghanistan also protested and male medical students walked out of exams protest at their female classmates being excluded.
The United Nations and several countries have condemned the order, which takes Afghanistan back to the Taliban’s first period of rule when girls could not receive formal education.
A heavy security presence has been present in the Afghan capital, including at gatherings at universities, in recent days.
The UN’s Special Rapporteur to Afghanistan said it was “a new low further violating the right to equal education and deepens the erasure of women from Afghan society.”
A spokesperson for Afghanistan’s higher education ministry said its minister would hold a press conference on Thursday or Friday to “to elaborate more on the closure of universities for women.”
The US said such a move would “come with consequences for the Taliban”.
“The Taliban cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all in Afghanistan,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement.
“No country can thrive when half of its population is held back.”
