Saudi Arabia and Turkey denounce Taliban’s women-only university ban

• Saudi Arabia and Turkey are the latest Muslim-majority countries to oppose the Taliban’s ban on women.
• About two dozen women protested in Kabul on Thursday.
• Several Afghan cricketers also opposed the ban.

Saudi Arabia and Turkey are the latest Muslim-majority countries to oppose the Taliban’s ban on women in universities. About two dozen women protested in Kabul on Thursday.

Several Afghan cricketers also opposed the ban. Afghanistan’s cricket players have millions of social media fans.

Taliban officials ordered women to stop attending private and state universities this week.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Higher Education, Ziaullah Hashmi, tweeted Thursday that a news conference will be held this week to explain the move.

Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban have widely imposed Sharia, their vision of Islamic law.

Girls are excluded from middle and high school, women are barred from most jobs, and they must wear head-to-toe clothes in public. Parks and gyms ban women. Afghan society, while traditional, has accepted girls’ and women’s education in the past two decades.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia condemned the ban.

The prohibition is “neither Islamic nor compassionate,” Turkey’s foreign minister warned Thursday.

Cavusoglu urged the Taliban to alter course at a news conference with his Yemeni counterpart.

“What’s wrong with educating women?” Afghanistan? Cavusoglu: Does Islam explain? Islam favors education and science.

Saudi Arabia, which restricted women’s travel, employment, and other elements of daily life until 2019, urged the Taliban to reverse course.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry expressed “astonishment and sadness” for Afghan women’s university exclusion. The government said the decision was “amazing in all Islamic countries.”

Qatar, which engages with the Taliban, denounced the decision.

Two dozen women marched Thursday in Kabul, calling for freedom and equality in Dari. “Either/or. Fear not. They chanted “We’re together.”

AP video shows a lady saying Taliban security agents used brutality to disperse the group.

She said, “The females were whipped.” “They brought military ladies who whipped girls.” Girls were arrested when we fled. I don’t know.”

Afghan cricketers want the ban repealed.

Rahmanullah Garbaz stated every day of squandered education hurts the country’s future.

Rashid Khan said women are society’s foundation. “A society that leaves its children with ignorant and illiterate mothers can’t expect its members to work hard,” he said.

Nangarhar Medical University also supported female students. Male students reportedly walked out in solidarity and refused to take examinations unless women’s university access was restored.

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