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In a blog I wrote in August 2021, I asked this question. Are the Taliban returning to the practice of the Koran they had before the West forced them out of Afghanistan 20 years ago? We have received the answer, unfortunately it is yes. From the new year, Afghan girls are not allowed to study at Afghan universities. Before the Western countries withdrew from Afghanistan, they received assurances from the Taliban that girls would receive an education. The most radical part of the Taliban has been given power, the result is that women’s rights have been set back 150 years, as I feared in my blog.

Open universities to girls too

My plea to the extreme Muslim regime in Afghanistan is to look a little further than the extreme interpretation of the Koran they stand for. A prerequisite for international aid to Afghanistan is a minimum of human rights. For girls, the right and opportunity for higher education is absolutely necessary.

Letting girls in is also exploiting the resources Afghanistan has. The prerequisite for economic progress is to let everyone, including girls, have the opportunity. Girls are not given opportunity by denying them higher education. Girls are a resource, not a man’s property.

Worth fighting for

A big question can be asked whether it was particularly wise for the US and Western countries to withdraw from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021. The promises that were made are not kept, as many were skeptical about. Girls’ rights are clearly a human right, which the Taliban do not care about.

Economic reactions against the Muslim clergy in Afghanistan must be intensified. Similarly, there must be reactions against the countries that support this regime. Only when the economic consequences become dramatic can we perhaps expect a change. Girls have the same rights as boys. Women are not the property of men. Women are a resource.

Sources:

Afghanistan: Taliban ban women from universities amid condemnation – BBC News

Taliban bar women from university education in Afghanistan | AP News

Afghanistan’s Taliban Ban Women From Universities, Release Two Americans – WSJ