Afghan authorities under the Taliban expel female students from universities

KABUL: The United States, Britain, and the United Nations all strongly condemned Tuesday's decision by Afghanistan's Taliban-run higher education ministry to temporarily bar female students from attending institutions.

According to a letter that was certified by a higher education ministry spokeswoman, a Cabinet resolution required Afghan public and private universities to immediately stop accepting female students.

The declaration was made by the Taliban government, which is not recognised internationally, during a meeting of the UN Security Council on Afghanistan in New York.

Foreign governments, including the United States, have stated that before they will consider legally recognising the Taliban-run government, which is also subject to severe sanctions, they must reform its policy on women's education.

US Deputy UN Ambassador Robert Wood told the council that the action was "absolutely indefensible" and that the Taliban "cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all Afghans, especially the human rights and fundamental freedom of women and girls."

The suspension is "another outrageous limitation of women's rights and a terrible and profound disappointment for every single female student," according to Britain's UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward.

She informed the council that it was "also another move by the Taliban away from an independent and prosperous Afghanistan."

Many foreign nations and some Afghans criticised the Taliban in March for turning back on promises that all females' high schools would be opened.

Tuesday's action, according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, was "obviously another broken commitment from the Taliban."

He told reporters in New York that the action was "another extremely disturbing step" and that it was "hard to conceive how the country can progress, cope with all of the issues that it has, without active participation of women and the education of women."

Roza Otunbayeva, the UN's special representative for Afghanistan, stated that the Taliban government's contacts with the outside world had been "undermined" by the closure of high schools, which was also "very unpopular among Afghans and even within the Taliban leadership."

We continue to be in a deadlock, she continued, "as long as girls are still not allowed to attend school and the de facto authorities continue to disregarded other stated concerns of the international community."

The choice was made while many college students were taking their final examinations for the semester. When her daughter learned about the letter, the mother of a university student—who asked not to be identified for security reasons—said she received a tearful phone call from her daughter who feared she would be unable to continue her medical studies in Kabul.

"The suffering that not only I, but also (other) moms experience in our hearts is indescribable. We are all experiencing this anguish, and they are concerned about their children's future "She spoke.