CNN
—
A group of women took to the streets in the Afghan city of Herat on Saturday to protest the Taliban’s order this week to stop all female students in the country from attending college.
Video footage circulating on social media shows Taliban officials using water cannons to disperse female protesters.
Girls were seen escaping from water cannons and chanting “cowards” to officials.
The Taliban’s announcement this week to suspend college education for female students is the latest step in an ongoing crackdown on women’s freedom in Afghanistan.
The move comes despite the group’s promise to respect women’s rights when it returned to power last year.
This follows a similar move that banned girls from returning to secondary school in March this year.
College boys across the country are responding by boycotting exams in protest against the latest education ban.
“Education is the duty of men and women,” read a statement from the Mirwais Nika Institute of Higher Education in Kandahar, published Saturday. “This is the fundamental right and secret of national development and self-reliance.”
Students initially asked Taliban authorities to rescind the ban, but “there was no positive response,” the school said, adding that “frustration and unhappiness” fueled the boycott.
A university official told CNN that classes were put on hold due to a student’s decision to boycott the entrance exam.
The Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, came to power in Afghanistan in a lightning takeover in August 2021 following the withdrawal of US troops.
Under its previous rule, the group was notorious for treating women as second-class citizens.
After seizing power last year, the group has made many promises to protect the rights of women and girls.
But activists say the Taliban have broken promises and are again steadily eroding women’s freedom.
group on saturday ordered Encourage all local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country to ban female employees from coming to work. The ministry’s official notice was read out that an NGO’s license would be revoked if it did not comply with the law.
A spokesperson told CNN the move was due to the Islamic Emirate’s Islamic dress code and other laws and regulations not being followed.
Afghan women can no longer work in most sectors.
Their travel rights are also severely restricted, with severely restricted access to public spaces. Women must also cover themselves completely in public, including their faces.
