Taliban warn women can't take entry exams at universities
Taliban warn women can't take entry exams at universities
ISLAMABAD -
The Taliban on Saturday doubled down on their ban on women's education, reinforcing in a message to private universities that Afghan women are barred from taking university entry exams, according to a spokesman.
The note comes despite weeks of condemnation and lobbying by the international community for a reversal on measures restricting women's freedoms, including two back-to-back visits this month by several senior U.N. officials. It also bodes ill for hopes that the Taliban could take steps to reverse their edicts anytime soon.
The Taliban barred women from private and public universities last month. The higher education minister in the Taliban-run government, Nida Mohammed Nadim, has maintained that the ban is necessary to prevent the mixing of genders in universities -- and because he believes some subjects being taught violate Islamic principles.
Work was underway to fix these issues and universities would reopen for women once they were resolved, he had said in a TV interview.
The Taliban have made similar promises about middle school and high school access for girls, saying classes would resume for them once "technical issues" around uniforms and transport were sorted out. But girls remain shut out of classrooms beyond sixth grade.
Higher Education Ministry spokesman Ziaullah Hashmi said Saturday that a letter reminding private universities not to allow women to take entrance exams was sent out. He gave no further details.
A copy of the letter, shared with The Associated Press, warned that women could not take the "entry test for bachelor, master and doctorate levels" and that if any university disobeys the edict, "legal action will be taken against the violator."
The letter was signed by Mohammad Salim Afghan, the government official overseeing student affairs at private universities.
Entrance exams start on Sunday in some provinces while elsewhere in Afghanistan, they begin Feb. 27. Universities across Afghanistan follow a different term timetable, due to seasonal differences.
Mohammed Karim Nasari, spokesman for the private universities union, said last month that dozens of private universities risk closure because of the ban.
Afghanistan has 140 private universities across 24 provinces, with around 200,000 students. Out of those, some 60,000 to 70,000 are women. The universities employ about 25,000 people.
Earlier this week, U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths and leaders of two major international aid organizations visited Afghanistan, following last week's visit by a delegation led by the U.N.'s highest-ranking woman, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed. The visits had the same aim -- to try and reverse the Taliban's crackdown on women and girls, including their ban on Afghan women working for national and global humanitarian organizations.
U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Ottawa Thursday evening for a whirlwind 27-hour visit expected to focus on both the friendly and thorny aspects of the Canada-U.S. relationship, including protectionism and migration on both sides of the border.
Canada and the United States are negotiating a deal that could see asylum seekers turned back at irregular border crossings across the border, including Roxham Road in Quebec.
Amid renewed questions over the pervasiveness of alleged interference by China in Canadian elections and affairs broadly, opposition MPs voted Thursday afternoon to affirm a parliamentary committee's call for the federal government to strike a public inquiry.
An asteroid discovered just last week will pass closer to the Earth than the orbit of the moon this weekend, an occurrence so rare it happens only once in a decade, according to NASA.
The number of Canadians receiving employment insurance benefits are at record lows and down 44 per cent from last year, new figures from Statistics Canada show.
Two Kanien'keha:ka (Mohawk) sisters from Montreal are on a mission that is close to their hearts: to save their ancestors' first language by developing video games young and old can play.
Zellers has opened the first of 25 new locations within Hudson's Bay stores across the country. The Canadian retail chain launched 12 stores in Ontario and Alberta Thursday, along with a new e-commerce website.
Embattled South Carolina Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom will resign next month after a US$3.5 billion accounting error in the year-end financial report he oversaw.
Two Kanien'keha:ka (Mohawk) sisters from Montreal are on a mission that is close to their hearts: to save their ancestors' first language by developing video games young and old can play.
The largest recorded earthquake in Alberta's history was not a natural event, but most likely caused by disposal of oilsands wastewater, new research has concluded.
A Victoria man’s life of crime has turned into one of survival, hope and advocacy amid ongoing conversations in the community about how best to tackle public safety matters.
French unions called for new nationwide strikes and protests next week, coinciding with King Charles III's planned visit to France, after more than 1 million people demonstrated throughout the country Thursday against unpopular pension reforms.
The Manhattan district attorney investigating Donald Trump rebuffed U.S. House Republicans' request Thursday for documents and testimony about the case, dismissing it as an "unprecedented inquiry" with no legitimate basis.
A top Russian security official warned Thursday about the rising threat of a nuclear war and blasted a German minister for threatening Russian President Vladimir Putin with arrest, saying that such action would amount to a declaration of war and trigger a Russian strike on Germany.
Some thrill seekers describe bungee jumping as a near-death experience, but few come quite as close as one man who managed to survive his cord snapping in Thailand.
Chinese diplomats expressed their strong opposition to an expanded United States military presence in the Philippines in closed-door talks with their Filipino counterparts Thursday in Manila, a Filipino official said, underscoring the intense U.S.-China rivalry in the region.
Embattled South Carolina Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom will resign next month after a US$3.5 billion accounting error in the year-end financial report he oversaw.
U.S. President Joe Biden has arrived in Canada, kicking off his short but long-awaited overnight official visit to Canada. The official itinerary has just been released; here's everything you need to know about what will be on the agenda, and what key players are saying about the upcoming visit.
Amid renewed questions over the pervasiveness of alleged interference by China in Canadian elections and affairs broadly, opposition MPs voted Thursday afternoon to affirm a parliamentary committee's call for the federal government to strike a public inquiry.
The Prime Minister's Office says Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, stayed in a $6,000 per night hotel suite while attending the funeral for Queen Elizabeth II.
A Victoria man’s life of crime has turned into one of survival, hope and advocacy amid ongoing conversations in the community about how best to tackle public safety matters.
For the first time, autism is being diagnosed more frequently in Black and Hispanic children than in white kids in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.
Canada's race to procure ventilators for COVID-19 patients in the early days of the pandemic had researchers, scientists, industry and a notable astrophysicist working 'night and day' to design machines that could be quickly manufactured domestically.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump getting gang-tackled by riot-gear-clad New York City police officers. Russian President Vladimir Putin in prison greys behind the bars of a dimly lit concrete cell.
U.S. lawmakers grilled the CEO of TikTok over data security and harmful content Thursday, responding skeptically during a tense committee hearing to his assurances that the hugely popular video-sharing app prioritizes user safety and should not be banned.
An asteroid discovered just last week will pass closer to the Earth than the orbit of the moon this weekend, an occurrence so rare it happens only once in a decade, according to NASA.
Gwyneth Paltrow's attorneys asked the daughter of a man suing the actor-turned-lifestyle influencer over a 2016 ski collision about missing GoPro camera footage that they called 'the most important piece of evidence' at trial Thursday.
Proponents of a British Columbia liquefied natural gas export facility have unveiled plans to achieve net-zero emissions commitments in the construction phase and for its future operations.
A majority of Canadians have seen a mistake on their grocery receipts in the last year, according to a new survey conducted by Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University.
Neurodivergent education expert Mary Klovance says there are several approaches educators can take to help students with such conditions as ADHD and autism to flourish in the classroom.
Nancy Rose is the creator behind the "The Secret Life of Squirrels" – a series of children’s books and calendars capturing real-life squirrels engaging in human activities.
World Athletics has banned transgender women from competing in elite female competitions if they have gone through male puberty, the sport's governing body said on Thursday.
More than 50 current and former Canadian fencers have joined a growing call for a Canadian judicial inquiry on maltreatment in sport, saying the fear of retribution has kept them silent for nearly 20 years on fencing's toxic culture and abusive practices.
California lawmakers on Thursday will vote on whether to allow penalties on oil companies for price gouging at the pump, a first-in-the-country proposal aimed at stopping the kind of spikes last summer that caused some drivers pay up to US$8 per gallon as the industry reaped super-sized profits.
The Chevrolet Camaro, for decades the dream car of many teenage American males, is going out of production. General Motors, which sells the brawny muscle car, said Wednesday it will stop making the current generation early next year.
U.S. auto safety regulators are investigating complaints from Honda Civic drivers that their steering can stick, causing a momentary increase in effort and increasing the risk of a crash.
