Taliban toreverse restrictions on women

Taliban banned all university educationfor women and announced the
exclusion of women from NGO work in the last week. The United Nations
Security Council (UNSC) onTuesday condemned the increasing restrictions on
women’s rights in Afghanistan- a week after the Taliban banned university
education for women in thecountry. In apress release, the UNSC
urged the Taliban to reverse the restrictions and“reiterated its deep
concern of the suspension of schools beyond the sixthgrade, and its call
for the full, equal, and meaningful participation of womenand girls in
Afghanistan,” sources revealed. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Volkerobserved “No country can develop —indeed survive — socially and
economically with half its population excluded”,he further added the
unfathomable restrictions placed on women and girls willnot only increase
the suffering of all Afghans but, I fear, pose a risk beyondAfghanistan’s
borders. The latest decree by the de factoauthorities will have
terrible consequences for women and for all Afghanpeople. The ban will
significantly impair, if not destroy, the capacity ofthese NGOs to deliver
the essential services on which so many vulnerableAfghans depend,” the UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights added. Even since the Taliban took
over Afghanistan,several stringent measures were taken – particularly
regarding the rights ofwomen and minorities – from ordering all the
universities to implement newrules related to gender-segregated classrooms
and entrances, to ordering allthe female presenters on TV channels to cover
their faces on air. InAfghanistan’s western Herat province, men and women
are not allowed to sittogether in restaurants, even if they are
husband and wife.