The Taliban’s decision to prohibit women from working for aid agencies operating in Afghanistan has been met by a suspension of services by CARE, Save the Children, the International Rescue Committee, and the Norwegian Refugee Council, four key foreign agencies. Although the Taliban has not specified which agencies are covered by the ban, there are 180 local and international groups providing life-saving aid during Afghanistan’s ongoing humanitarian crisis. Since many of these agencies depend on women to do their work, the ban could be catastrophic for the thousands of poor Afghans relying on them for shelter, food, and health care.

The recent ban on women attending university has drawn sharp criticism from both Islamic scholars and Muslim countries. The senior-most Sunni authority on the faith, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar Ahmad Tayeb has called on the Taliban to reconsider its decree. He ruled that the ban contradicts Sharia, Muslim canon law, and conflicts with Islam’s call for both men and women to seek knowledge from cradle to grave.

This call “has produced mighty minds among women along the scientific and political history of Islam,” he said. The ban ignores more than 2,000 sayings of the Prophet Muhammad as well as the historic roles women have assumed in education, science, and politics.” He said the decision was “shocking” to both Muslims and non-Muslims and “should not have been issued by any Muslim.”

He argued, “Islam firmly denounces such banning since it contradicts the legal rights that Islam equally guarantees for women and men. So, claiming otherwise is a fabrication against this valuable religion.”

The Muslim Council of Elders, which is chaired by the Grand Imam, stated that Islam liberated women from pre-Islamic traditions that deprived them of their rights and rendered them unable” to dealing with the challenges they meet in life. It has been little publicised that the Taliban has imposed a total ban education for girls prohibiting them and their teachers from attending schools.

The Taiban bans deprive half the Afghan population from acquiring literacy as well as knowledge although the Holy Quran obliges Muslims to seek knowledge, “ilm,” hundreds of times. The Prophet Muhammad’s (Peace Be Upon Him) first command to his followers was, “Read!” a skill unavailable to the illiterate. He proclaimed, “The best gift from a father to his child is education and upbringing.” One of his most well-known statements is, “Seek knowledge even as far as China.”

The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar have voiced concern over the ban while Pakistan, the first Muslim country to have a female prime minister, has expressed disappointment. The Taliban, which had been backed by Pakistan, had pledged not to revert to hard-line policies adopted during the movement’s previous period in government (1996-2001).

Since the ban had been anticipated, Gulf Cooperation Council members met last month with the Taliban’s acting foreign minister in Doha and urged the full inclusion of women and girls in Afghanistan. The six council members where laws are based on Sharia — the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Saudi Arabia — called on the Taliban to form a reconciliation plan for Afghanistan that “respects basic freedoms and rights, including women’s right to work and education.”

Nevertheless, the ban went into effect. The Taliban’s ultimate decision-maker is the reclusive religious scholar and supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who is in his 70s and based in Kandahar. Before the Taliban take-over in August 2021, he and his entourage lived in Quetta in Pakistan. While more modern-minded and moderate Taliban officials are believed to have argued against this policy, he has the final say.

Although the Taliban has reverted to its ultra-conservative policies on women since returning to power, the timing of the ban is also significant. It coincides with protests led by educated Iranian women calling for the overthrow of Iran’s Islamic Republic. Fearing just such protests, the Taliban has cracked down on dissenting women.

The closure of primary schools for girls denies them literacy, shuttering of girls’ secondary school prevents them from gaining knowledge and ban on higher education cripple Afghan society. The higher education decree has ended the careers of women already at university and crushed the hopes of women who succeeded in university entrance examinations which were held last October. They were determined to enter university even though the Taliban had limited the range of courses they could take. Women were barred from journalism, agriculture, veterinary medicine, engineering and economics but could study to qualify as teachers, doctors, and nurses.

The Taliban has cancelled the rights girls and women gained during the country’s 20 years under the former government. The Taliban has barred women from traveling outside their home area without a male relative, deprived women of employment, and excluded from parks, gyms, and amusement parks.

Taliban practices contrast shrarply with the UAE’s efforts to educate and employ women in a full range of jobs. Emirati girls and women are 95.8 per cent literate, 77 per cent is enrolled in higher education and comprises 70 per cent of graduates of UAE universities. More than half study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. A dozen women have served as cabinet ministers. Women hold two-thirds of public sector jobs, with 30 per cent at senior levels, and 15 per cent in technical and academic positions.

While women play a small role in business, several head major firms, and their numbers in commerce are growing.  Sarah Al Amiri — UAE Minister of State for Public Education and Advanced Technology and Chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency — pointed out that women make up half the agency’s employees. Noura Al Matroushi is training as an astronaut.

Photo: TNS